Many Saudis feel betrayed by America

ArabNews, Saudi Arabia ^ | 8-22-02 | Donna Abu-Nasr

[Non-Sequitur]

The feeling is mutual.

[tcostell]

I can certainly understand how they could get so upset. I mean it was just last year that a bunch of American citizens blew up a building in Riyadh killing 3,000 saudi's and doing billions of..... < /sarcasm>

[bok]

How many of your saudi citizens hit the united states with terrorist attacks on SEPTEMBER THE 11TH?

[small voice in the wilderness]

Boo f**kin hoo. We've got our own problems, namely, 80 year old women and men pulled out of lines to be stripped and body searched in the name of political correctness and tolerance.

Got a gripe, Saudis? Donahue is looking for victims of American oppression and intolerance. Better hurry, though, his ratings are going down faster than a K-Mart tire.

[meenie]

Why should Saudis feel any different than the average American and his experiences with the new security arrangements? They shouldn't even be getting any travel visas.

[bok]

P.S. My middle finger would like to give you it's regards.



I Love NYC - Andrew W.K.

[hadnuf]

That's a pretty funny article...thanks for starting my morning on a humourous note.

[End Times Sentinel]

"People see the visa line as a sign that says, ‘Hey we hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we don’t want you,’"

O.K. We’ve got you that far, now all you need to do is not come here anymore.

Simply amazing what flying a few fully loaded passenger jets into our buildings, publicly raising money for suicide bombers, covertly (semi-covertly anyway) funding terrorists, and serving as ground zero for a religion that’s foremost goal is total destruction of our way of life and subjugation of our people will do for relations.

Who’d a thunk?

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[kapn kuek]

a US defense think-tank analyst suggests the United States target Saudi oil fields and financial assets unless the kingdom does more to fight terrorism.

This sounds good to me!

[Stallone]

I resent that Saudi Arabia still exists as a nation.

If I were Prez, it would be a still-smoking hole as a result of a work accident occurring precisely on September 12, 2001.

Shameless b@st@rds will pay, big time.

[Ralph the Hun]

"People see the visa line as a sign that says, ‘Hey we hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we don’t want you,’"

Let me reinforce it for you: We hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we don’t want you!

[marron]

"I thought the whole thing would take maximum three hours," he said. "But nine hours? That’s not only humiliating. It also doesn’t make any sense."

Hey, welcome to security, federal-government-style.

If they could make it any more inconvenient, I'm sure they would. Trust me, its not much better for us.

"Saudis are being collectively punished for the actions of a few."

The US and Saudis have had an exceedingly close relationship for 50 years. The Saudi government has been almost an extension of ours, and vice-versa; I think a case could be made that our foreign policy was essentially managed from Ryadh over the last decade.

US companies, and citizens, have had first shot at projects and financial opportunities in the Kingdom, and Saudis were treated as quasi-US citizens here. The level of trust between the two governments was really astounding.

And for years the Kingdom subsidized off-books operations by the CIA, helped our balance of payments by buying every weapons system to come down the pike, only to bury it in the desert in case we might need it some day. They have tolerated our support of Israel as one tolerates a friend's bad habits, and we have relied on them for advice in all of our dealings in the Muslim world, from Chechnya to Bosnia to Kosovo, and on.

It bought us a hole in the ground in downtown NYC, and friends who could not commiserate without laying blame at our feet, and friends who would not give any public support as we went after the killers in Afghanistan. Friends who provided 15 of 19 hijackers, but admitted none of it publicly.

In past years we have always understood the Kingdom's need to keep its support for us, and its friendship with us, quiet and under the table. In the past we accepted it. But no more.

The Saudis are not being punished for the actions of a few. Our entire relationship with them is being weighed, and found wanting, because they could not stand up publicly when it counted, because no Saudi has been able to express genuine sympathy and support when we expected it.

And because their policies are in conflict with those countries who did stand up. Saudi support for Chechen killers and Indian Muslim extremists, and Indonesians who slaughter their Christian neighbors, Saudi support for Philipino killers who cut the heads off of missionaries, in the aftermath of the attacks on us is no longer something we can simply ignore.

The Saudis need to know that our view of them has undergone a real, and dramatic change, and barring a "road to Damascus" change of direction their world will soon be rotated on its axis.

[Octavius]

Many Americans feel betrayed by Saudi.

[Kenton]

"People see the visa line as a sign that says, ‘Hey we hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we don’t want you,’" said Khaled M. Batarfi, a managing editor of the Saudi newspaper Al-Madinah and a journalism graduate of the University of Oregon. Saudi and US officials insist that government-to-government ties remain solid, that the basis of the relationship has not changed.

Stop reading things into everything and just listen to the simple words coming out of our mouths... We hate you, we regard you with suspicion, we don’t want you... We don't want you, your religion, your oil or your money. Any Wahhabe Muslim in this country is to be viewed as a member of a dangerous cult that is out to destroy our people, our religious freedom, our culture and all that we hold dear. Does that take the ambiguity out of it for you?

Now get the f*ck out of my country.

[Guillermo]

I want to ask those freaks what if *I* wanted to get a tourist visa to Saudi?

Oh that's right, we're not even allowed to go to that God-forsaken hellhole.

Someone call the whaaaaaaambulance for these morons.

[HanneyBean]

You took the words right outta my mouth. Thank you.

[Mustard]

Nowadays Al-Riyadh daily has been carrying ads for universities in Romania, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, China and Arab countries as alternatives to US colleges.

Good idea.

Mustard

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Bravo!

[Shryke]

"This is too much — over and beyond disgusting," said Al-Duweihi. "Saudis are being collectively punished for the actions of a few." He was referring to Sept. 11.

Punished?? A Visa to the U.S. is a privilige, not a damn right, you sand-eating pig. Why don't all of you Saudis just keep pouring into Europe instead of coming here?