JUDGING

By Kermit C. Moss
 

Ancient wisdom has it that a man can be fairly judged by the company he keeps. That a man will tend to surround himself with people that believe as he does and that act like he does. So the theory follows that you can take a look at them and make a good, fair judgment as to what kind of man he is.

But what about nations? Can you look around the world and fairly judge a country by its friends?

What about our friendship with Saudi Arabia? How much alike are the USA and Saudi Arabia? You be the judge!

Saudi Arabia is said to be an oligarchy, a form of government where a few rule the many.
And, according to an article by Nimrod Rapheli , entitled Saudi Arabia: A Brief Guide to its Politics and Problems, published in September, 2003, the few are predominantly royal male princes descended from the founder of the modern kingdom, King Abd al-Aziz, who, upon his death in 1953, left behind 44 sons, and an uncounted number of daughters, by 17 wives! To quote. “Today, Saudi Arabia’s ruling structure is capped by a unique, almost unprecedented form of oligarchy, whose members are connected through a bloodline to Saudi Arabia’s polygamous founder. The princes have treated the country’s wealth of oil and minerals as their personal domain and made themselves famous for their extravagant life style“. Some princes have accumulated enormous wealth, one with a personal fortune of an estimated $20 billion. Thus, Saudi Arabia is said to be the only country in the world where Mercedes cars are advertised as gift items.

In year 2003, with a population of 22 million, the country was led at the highest levels, by the king, 103 princes, and one princess. The economy is solidly oil-based.

The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 75 percent of budget revenues, 45 percent of GDP, and 90 percent of export earnings, with only about 25 percent of GDP coming from the private sector. Unemployment is estimated at 20 percent but the data is unreliable and could be as high as 30 percent; and poverty is one of the manifestations of unemployment! Many street beggars are to be found there.

The average woman in Saudi Arabia has 5.4 children, so from 1981 to 2001 the population increased by 54%, and some experts estimated that in the future the country’s population will double every 20 years.

So the princes and their families are very rich and getting richer, while many of the rest remain in poverty, and are getting poorer. The easiest way for the rich to get richer is for oil prices to go up, and wars generally, if not always, make that happen.

In the Arabian peninsula, Wahhabi Islam is the dominant religious tradition. So what about the Wahhabis? Osama bin Laden, coming out of Saudi Arabia, is himself a Wahhabi. Wahhabi followers, extreme fundamentalists, do not view it as just one school of thought among many, but to them it is the one and only way, the true way, and they will accept nothing else. In the past we have had such Christian protestant groups in America who preached that if a person didn’t strictly follow their way - on baptism, for example - that person was headed straight to hell. The Wahhabis are especially critical of Christians, condemning them to hell, and calling them infidels and that they should all be killed.

Under date of 7/13/07 an article entitled “The Bush-Saudi Connection ” by Michelle Mairesse is published on the Internet. Consisting of some 23 pages, it sets forth the close business relationship and friendly family relationship of the Bush family with the Saudi royal family, including the bin Laden family. It refers to the evacuation from the soil of the United States of some 140 Saudi nationals, all in some way related to Osama bi Laden, immediately after the 9-11 attacks on the world trade center, and mentions again that of the 19 persons involved in the plane hijackings, 15 were Saudi Arabia nationals.

But let me quote from the article. Discussing a report on the subject by a man named Carl Unger, “Unger believes that this episode raises particularly sensitive questions about this administration. Never before in history has a president of the United States had such a close relationship with a foreign power as president Bush and his father have had with the Saudi royal family, the House of Saud. I have traced more than $1.4 billion in investments and contracts that went from the House of Saud over the past 20 years to companies in which the Bushes and their allies have had prominent positions - Harken Energy, Halliburton, and the Carlyle Group among them. Is it possible that President Bush himself played a role in authorizing the evacuation of the Saudis after 9/11?

"What did he know and when did he know it?”

Now, in conclusion, let me raise some of my own questions! Is this close family relationship the reason why we have failed to capture Osama bin Laden? Unrest has already been reported as a result of the way the royal family hogs most of the oil money! With population doubling every 20 years, will the royal family be able to hold on to power? If they lose power, what will happen to the relationship between America and Saudi Arabia? The opinion here is that the Wahhabis would immediately kill or chase us out, along with the royal family, many if not most of whom would come to the United States, creating for us even more enemies abroad!

The official, publicly proclaimed friendship of our nation to another nation should be based, for the most part, on the shared values of the peoples involved, such as the right to vote, freedom of speech and the press, not on gas and oil for our automobiles!

What say you?

Kermit C. Moss
PO Box 1136
Monticello, AR 71657

PH 870-367-2486 - office
870-367-7034 - home

July 14, 2007