Trent Telenko believes that moves against the Saudis are beginning in the Bush Administration. He has a rather long list of trends that don’t like good for everyone’s favorite sponsors of Wahhabist radicalism.
I’m still taking this with a grain of salt, however. The Saudis still are trying to play the "we’re allies against terrorism" game, and they’ve plenty of receptive ears across the globe. I don’t see Bush Administration policy leaning towards regime change. A power vacuum in Saudi Arabia would be a very dangerous gamble to make, and could inflame the Middle East even more.
I do see increasing political pressure being placed on the Saudis until they start having to make some truly monumental concessions. The Saudis have spend years talking peace and spending on terror. The Bush Administration is clearly setting up a situation in which the Saudi’s leverage on us is reduced to virtually nothing. Once that is accomplished, we may very well make the Saudis put their money where their mouths are.
It’s clear that the Arab world needs to make more than half-hearted reforms. There needs to be a real commitment to anti-terrorism operations, and that includes the state funding of radical madrassas that serve as centers for terrorist recruitment worldwide. Only once the Saudis actions meet their rhetoric can they be considered anything even approaching an ally.
Dick Cheney just spent the past six months censoring the Congressional 9-11 report to remove anything that could implicate the Saudi Royal Family, so I tend to agree that “regime change” is HIGHLY unlikely.
It could well be that those 26 pages do reveal sources and methods that could compromise ongoing investigations. Until those pages are revealed anything is just speculation.
Although it it interesting that the effect of that censoring has been a whirlwind of controversy surrounding the Saudis – one wonders how much of that is intentional.
However, I don’t blame you for being skeptical of the relationship between the Bush Administration and the Saudis. It’s clear that the Saudis are not doing enough to reduce terrorism, and the Administration must take strong action to ensure that they do.
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