Posted on 08/09/2002 5:46:41 PM PDT by knighthawk
Perhaps in a court of law, yes. But we're not taking the Saudi government to court. All we need to know is that the Saudies give financial support to the terrorists. We know that the house of Saud goes back 400 years hand in hand with the wahabbi mullahs. The Saudi royal family itself is not necessarily steeped in the religious fanaticism of the wahabbies; the royal family merely appeases the mullahs. The problem is, the mullahs have gained enough power so that they feel they don't really need the monarchy for their survival. They would prefer to eliminate the monarchy and institute a pure Islamic state, run by the wahabbi mullahs. The Saudies, in turn, hope that they can still bribe the mullahs by supporting every religious nut case terrorist who asked for funding.
The bottom line is that the Saudies will tolerate anything the wahabbies ask for, including murder and mayhem. If we want to stop Islamic terror we need to do it ourselves, because we will not be able to depend on the spineless Saudi monarchy.
War doesn't work like the court system. You don't get off the hook on a technicality. Courts are for society at peace.
But hey, we're probably not going to turn Saudi Arabia into a parking lot anyway. They don't have enough of an army to go against the US for ten minutes. The more likely scenario is for us to support an internal faction that wants to overthrow the monarchy.
On the other hand, in a sudden fit of self preservation, the Saudies just might read the writing on the wall and shut down their support for the wahabbies. In that case, we could find it in our hearts to let them keep their little monarchy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.