Well, if not, Saudi is close enough.
Let's see, most of the hijackers (15/19) we from Saudi Arabia. Now we learn that the financial backing of al Qaeda is much narrower than we thought. In fact, it appears as if there are 12 main financial benefactors of al Qaeda, MOST OF THEM SAUDI ARABIAN.
What a joke. I can't even begin to comprehend why these guys are getting special treatment from the US. Actually, I can. The anti-war group is always bleating about the invasion of Iraq being about ooooiiiiiiilllllll. That seems fairly nonsensical and simplistic to me. But I have no problem believing that we let these suicide bomber rewarding, al Qaeda funding Islamic extremists play us for chumps because of oil.
And to all of these people screaming about the "American Empire": If we wanted Iraq's oil so badly, why didn't we take it in 1991? Why didn't we just stay in Kuwait? Why don't we just march into Saudi Arabia? If our primary motivation is to create Empire America, then why haven�t we done it? Does anyone doubt that we could if we really, really wanted to? The simple fact of the matter is that we only used military force after a terrorist attack killed thousands of innocent civilians. And it was an attack by a group that thought that being an American Taxpayer makes you a legitimate target. If al Qaeda had left us alone, we would have left them alone. And Iraq, too. But al Qaeda showed us that complacency and a false sense of security are a recipe for disaster. They showed us that allowing terrorists to scheme and plot and plan unabated may result in the murder of innocents on our own soil.
As the old playground saying goes: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Sitting back and letting Iraq continue on its merry way is sheer folly, and a mistake of the gravest magnitude.
I decided I was getting tired of being confused with other commenters on other sites, there are just too many Mark's in the world. I've gone by this nickname for over ten years, I haven't seen anyone else use it, so here goes.
I agree about the Saudi's, I inclined to believe that the Bush people agree too, but aren't ready to act yet, for various reasons. I may be all wrong about that, but I'm hoping that after Iraq we'll see movement in that direction. Because after Iraq, the whole dynamic changes to something we can exploit more easily. The oil threat will be gone, the Ladenites will be back on the run, and the arab "street" will do exactly nothing but sulk. Like any mob, when their momentum slows they begin to fragment and disperse.
The 12 moneymen? A little covert operation would seem to be in order. If being the only superpower means anything, surely they're not beyond our reach. If nothing else put a price on their heads, let them play the survival game for a while. I'm sure some aspiring capitolist in Egypt, or Palestine would gladly do them justice for a price. Immoral, absolutely,....but cost effective in lives not lost, a higher moral ground than doing nothing and hoping for the best.
Mark Edwards
Posted by: puggs on October 22, 2002 02:08 AMTo paraphrase Marc Anthony "If we wanted to be an empire, then Empires should be made of sterner stuff."
Posted by: Gene 6-Pack on October 22, 2002 04:35 PM