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What am I missing?

PRCalDude on April 27, 2007 at 1:19 PM

We are going to just have to agree to disagree on degrees.

But these are the cards that have been dealt and we have to work with them the best we can. The Saudis that are working with us do so at great risk in many cases and I’m sure appreciate the moral support.

Bradky on April 27, 2007 at 1:16 PM

At great risk? They’re molding the entire Islamic world into their image. The reason we’re seeing this current global jihad is because of Saudi Islam being spread throughout the world. They’re also doing the same thing with the Muslims in the U.S. and are trying to mold our country into an Islamic state. Don’t take my word for it, buy the book and read it.

PRCalDude on April 27, 2007 at 1:10 PM

All the more reason for us to become energy independent.

But these are the cards that have been dealt and we have to work with them the best we can. The Saudis that are working with us do so at great risk in many cases and I’m sure appreciate the moral support.

What exactly do you suggest they do? If they aren’t careful they lose whatever ground they may have gained and risk being overthrown. As Bush has said repeatedly this is a “long war” and will require lots of finesse.

If I were in their situation, I would do the same thing: try to maintain power. Unfortunately for them, less and less oil money is being spread amongst more and more members of the royal family. The size of the royal family is up to about 150,000 now, and your average Saudi prince has about 30 sons. You can do the math yourself. They’re kept in power by paying off the jihadists. If there’s less money to do that, they’re only buying themselves a little time by arresting these guys. It’s going to collapse eventually, and rather quickly depending on which stories you believe about water injection into Saudi oil wells.

The 80% that we’ve discussed acquiesces. That’s like being a member of the Nazi party, but not actually running a death camp. The 2.5% of the incomes of 1.2 billion people is a lot of money for jihad.

Rock on…………….

PRCalDude on April 27, 2007 at 12:39 PM

What exactly do you suggest they do? If they aren’t careful they lose whatever ground they may have gained and risk being overthrown. As Bush has said repeatedly this is a “long war” and will require lots of finesse.

This is good news in any event and the Saudis should be applauded for it.

The 80% is not mythical and it is certainly a good thing they don’t want to participate in the jihad.
Taxes, as you know, are something we sometimes have no control or say over, we just see them taken out of our checks.

Bradky on April 27, 2007 at 11:40 AM

Way off. There’s about 20% that will actually participate in a jihad. Jihadists move freely in Islamic societies because the other 80% know that jihad is Islamic and they support it with the 2.5% Islamic tax (zakat). Also, you’re assuming that the Saudis who ‘finessing’ the language to maintain support for this mythical 80% that don’t believe in violence are themselves not supporters of jihad. Really, the Saudis just want to maintain control over the oil resources that allow them to fund jihad, travel to Morocco to have sex with all the women and boys they can afford, and otherwise maintain the
status quo.

Gotta love it.

Among them both Saudi citizens and foreigners, an interior ministry spokesman said. (AFP/Breitbart) LATER: The suspects planned to carry out suicide attacks against “public figures, oil facilities, refineries… and military zones.” Some of them were…

PRCalDude on April 27, 2007 at 11:34 AM

Most of the things I read about radical Islam say around 20% are radicals. Yes, this means some 200 million believers and should be a real concern. On the other hand it also means over 800 million who don’t subscribe to the radical ideology.

If the Saudis are doing a little finessing of the language to maintain the support of that 80% group it is understandable. Results are what matters and they have been delivering results since 2001, thanks to the Bush team’s efforts.

It said the suspects, mostly Saudis, had been “influenced by the deviant ideology,” a reference frequently used by Saudi officials to refer to al Qaeda.

What’s deviant about al Qaeda’s ideology? It’s orthodox Islam, and they know it.

They probably had to let them go since the dungeons are filled with Christians and women caught behind the wheel.

Let us count the ways.

Exit question: So, when do they let them all go?

I don’t think that will happen this time. The Royal family’s hold on power is not ironclad. To be fair they have been cleaning up smaller operations that don’t get this kind of press. An operation of this size means they must have had some operatives on the inside – that in itself would be a huge improvement. Most of the guys caught won’t see too many more Ramadans in my opinion. Appeal processes in Saudi are a little more streamlined than in the US.

If the Royals were taken down, guess who would be the new publicly recognized leader of Saudi?

drjohn on April 27, 2007 at 10:51 AM

It wouldn’t be a new leader.

Precisely.