Saudi poll: Wide support for bin Laden
Well, we invaded Iraq using a much flimsier pretext. Can (or should) it only be a matter of time before we do the same to Saudi Arabia?
CNN) -- Almost half of all Saudis said in a poll conducted last year that they have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric, but fewer than 5 percent thought it was a good idea for bin Laden to rule the Arabian Peninsula.
The poll involved interviews with more than 15,000 Saudis and was overseen by Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national security consultant.
It was conducted between August and November 2003, after simultaneous suicide attacks in May 2003 when 36 people were killed in Riyadh.
Obaid said he only recently decided to reveal the poll results because he felt the public needed to know about them.
"I was surprised [at the results], especially after the bombings," Obaid told CNN. The question put to Saudi citizens was "What is your opinion of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric?"
In our effort to avenge 9.11, have we forgotten that most of the 9.11 hijackers were Saudis? George W. Bush certainly seems to have a conveniently faulty memory in that respect. Of course, going to war against Iraq provided easy cover for Bush. In Saddam Hussein, they had a ready-made Bogeyman. Iraq also provided a relatively easy way for Bush to demonstrate to the American electorate that he is "tough on terrorism". Easy, certainly, but off target.
I wonder the families of those 800+ dead American servicemen realize that their loved ones may have died in Iraq, but their deaths were essentially a waste. They've been lied to- WE'VE been lied to, and yet fully 50% of American voters don't seem to be able to grasp that.
America is no safer today from terrorism that it was on 9.10.01. All we have to show for all the sturm und drang is a lot of dead Americans and even more dead Iraqis. Yet our supposed friend and ally, Saudi Arabia, continues to harbor those who would gladly emulates the crimes committed by their countrymen and co-religionists on 9.11.01. So much for the war on terrorism, eh?
