May 25, 2003 8:22 AM

Shouldn't we have bombed these fools into the Stone Age??

Opinion: Hummers Here, Hummers There

I fear that the ruling brothers of Saudi Arabia are like the Soviet Politburo. I fear the 6,000 Saudi princes are like the Communist Party Central Committee. I fear that Riyadh is Red Square. I fear the Al-Sauds used Islamism to unite 40 fractious tribes in Arabia the way Lenin used Communism to unite 100 fractious nationalities across Russia. And I fear that Osama bin Laden is just the evil version of Andrei Sakharov -- the dissident Soviet scientist who exposed the system from within. Sakharov was exiled to Gorky. Bin Laden was exiled to Kabul. And both systems meet their end where? In Afghanistan.

- Thomas Friedman

If you have read TPRS for any length of time, you are likely aware of my unrequited love for SUV's. Perhaps it stems from living in Texas, where automobiles can double as weapons, but bigger definitely seems better. I've always thought that if you can afford to drive something the size of a road grader, why shouldn't you have that opportunity? This is America, after all? Right??

Well, I still love SUV's and Susan and I still argue about them, but I am beginning to realize that there is a dramatic downside to my theory of Automobilus Maximus Populus. It takes a lot of petroleum to feed these beasts, and where you have petroleum, you have Saudi Arabia. The problem with Saudi Arabia is that it wants to dance with the devil of fundamentalist Islam AND enjoy the fruits of Western excess. And I'd always been taught to never play with matches....

In private, Bush aides have been fuming: The U.S. gave the Saudis intelligence warnings before the recent attacks, but they took no steps to deter them. Publicly, though, the Bush team bites its tongue. We never talk straight to Saudi Arabia, because we are addicted to its oil. Addicts never tell the truth to their pushers.

If we were telling the Saudis the truth, we would tell them that their antimodern and antipluralist brand of Islam -- known as Wahhabism -- combined with their oil wealth has become a destabilizing force in the world. By financing mosques and schools that foster the least tolerant version of Islam, they are breeding the very extremists who are trying to burn down their house and ours.

But we also need to tell ourselves the truth. We constantly complain about the blank checks the Saudis write to buy off their extremists. But who writes the blank checks to the Saudis? We do -- with our gluttonous energy habits, renewed addiction to big cars, and our president who has made "conservation" a dirty word.

In the wake of the Iraq war, the E.P.A. announced that the average fuel economy of America's cars and trucks fell to its lowest level in 22 years, with the 2002 model year. That is a travesty. No wonder foreigners think we sent our U.S. Army Humvees to control Iraq, just so we could drive more G.M. Hummers over here. When our president insists that we can have it all -- big cars, big oil, lower taxes, with no sacrifices or conservation -- why shouldn't the world believe that all we are about is protecting our right to binge?

And so the circle is complete: President Bush won't tell Americans the truth, so we won't tell Saudis the truth, so they won't tell their extremists the truth, so they can go on pumping intolerance and we can go on guzzling gas. Someday, our kids will condemn us for all of this.

It should escape no one's attention that most of the 9.11 hijackers were Saudi. Coincidence? Only if you haven't been paying attention. It would be easy to condemn Shrub for this one, but no American Administration has had the balls to face up to the Saudis and tell it like it is. Why? Because of Oil. They have it, we need it, and Saudi Arabia is a relatively inexpensive, stable, and dependable source.

Of course, if American oil companies had expended serious effort in developing new sources of oil or alternative fuels, we might not be in this siutation. No Administration has faced up to the realities of our energy situation, because the feeling among True Believers has been that what is good for Big Oil is good for America. Because of this, we find ourselves in a situation where our country was attacked by citizens of our alleged "ally"- and we have essentially looked the other way. Surely I'm not the only one who finds this intolerable?

I still love SUV's. That's not going to change. But until our government faces reality and tells Saudi Arabia that it's time to make a choice, how can we justify being so thoughtless and inefficient? You cannot dance with the West while fundamentalist Islam is waiting for the next dance. Saudi Arabia CANNOT be allowed to continue talking out of boths sides of it's collective mouth- enjoying the benefits of supplying oil to the West while continuing to fund Islamic terrorists and radical fundamentalist groups.

We invaded Afghanistan after 9.11 because al-Qaeda had set up shop there. Following that logic, should we not have also turned one of their biggest benefactors- Saudi Arabia- into a parking lot as well? Of course, but then there is the Oil, always the Oil.

If our government will not display the moral courage to force the Saudis to make a decision, then it will be incumbent upon us to use whatever means we have at our disposal as citizens. I'm not saying that we all need to be driving Geo Metros, but the time may come when we will be left with no choice but to hit the Saudis with the only message they will grasp immediately. Take a bite out of their oil revenues, and you will get their attention. Or will it take another 9.11 before we wake up and smell the fajitas??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on May 25, 2003 8:22 AM.

With friends like this, who needs enemas? was the previous entry in this blog.

Everyone has an opinion, and we all know what opinions are like, don't we?? is the next entry in this blog.

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