The unprecedented violent activities and discoveries of caches of weapons in
Saudi Arabia is deceptively attributed to a small group of religious
extremists.
While there is some truth to this, It will be a huge policy plunder by the
US to ignore the bigger picture in Saudi Arabia. The overwhelming majority of
the Saudi people (men and women) are and have been resentful of the absolute
Saudi royal family's violations of their basic human rights, squandering of
their wealth and total control over every aspects of their lives. The Saudi
people are taking matters into their hands and no one should expect them to stop
before they rid themselves of the world's last absolute monarchy and its
oppressive and dehumanizing policies. The US and Great Britain are seen by many
Saudis as the protectors of the Saudi royal family, consequently the enemies of the
majority of the people, their interests and liberties.
Short of total transformation of the Saudi political, social, religious,
educational and economic institutions, meaningful reforms in Saudi Arabia are
impossible under the House of Saud. The Saudi royal family considers the country,
its wealth and its people to be its private property, hence, no sharing of
power, no elections, no transparency and no accountability. Such grim but real
situation will only push more Saudis to join Al-Qaedah and other extremist
groups. Real reforms in Saudi Arabia must be the US's first priority, if terrorism
is to be defeated. |
