Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald - Friday; May 16,2003 - 3
Another terrorist attack on Americans
Are we winning the war?
This editorial appeared in the San Jose Mercury
News on Wednesday.
The most confounding aspect of the war on terror is
that there is no way to gauge how well it’s going.
The victory over the Taliban and the capture of scores
of al-Q^eda leaders have certainly bought anxious
Americans some safety. But the barbaric attack in Saudi
Arabia on Monday is a reminder that America may not
have the upper hand in the war against a ruthless enemy
that lurks in the shadows and strikes unexpectedly.
To make lasting inroads in the war on terror, Ameri
ca’s efforts on security and intelligence won’t suffice.
The country will also need a foreign policy that ad
dresses the issues that have made the cause of the ter
rorists popular with so many disaffected young Mus
lims around the world. That’s something the Bush
administration has yet to grasp.
Monday’s attack had all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda: a
despicable act of mass murder, carefully orchestrated
for maximum destruction and psychological impact. It
provides new evidence that the radical anti-American
ism that led to the Sept. 11 attacks continues to thrive
in many parts of the world.
President Bush promised that the killers “will learn
the meaning of American justice.” It’s the kind of rheto
ric that plays well at home. Unfortunately, defeating
terrorism will be far more complicated.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, America’s policies — from a
unilateral war in Iraq to an unbalanced approach to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict—have fueled a growing re
sentment of American power. They are turning an in
creasing number of young men from Karachi to Riyadh
into killers. The terrorists have even found new recruits
in middle-class neighborhoods of small-town England.
Further, the Bush administration’s go-it-alone atti
tude and its emphasis on military might over diplomacy
have alienated allies, whose continued help will be nec
essary to hunt down terrorists.
To its credit, the administration is moving in the right
direction on at least one diplomatic front. U.S. troops
plan to leave Saudi Arabia, one of the most fertile breed
inggrounds for terrorists. With their departure, America
will be further away from a conflict between the coun
try’s conservative monarchy and its even more conser
vative Islamic clerics who have long incited terrorists.
The promise of troop withdrawals wasn’t enough to
prevent Monday’s attack, whose target was not just
America but the Saudi regime itself. Nor will peace in
the Middle East, nor stability in Afghanistan and Iraq
mean an end to terrorism. There are fanatics who will
continue to kill wantonly, no matter what.
But unless America works quickly to resolve these
issues in cooperation with other nations, the radicals
will continue to earn the sympathy of millions
around the world, and dozens of new recruits will be
ready to take the place of every al-Qaeda operative
that is captured or killed.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Attacks in SaudiArabia
2003:
Riyadh
I February: British
man shot dead
May 12: Suicide
IRAN car bombs at
Westerners'
housing
compounds kill,
Wok injure many
Chronology of attacks on Westerners:
Riyadh SYRIA
Five Americans, t
Indians killed, 60
wounded in explosion ■ “ IORDAN
at car park
1996: 'iL
Khobar Wk
Khobar
400 wounded when bombSL
explodes in fuel truck
2001: M
Khobar !jg
Two foreigners killed in attack
2002:
Riyadh
British man, German man killed
in separate car bomb incidents
Riyadh
SAUDI
■ 2010 KRT
Sourte
Gi«ii)hff- LUetett)
Nielsen, fell Polls
Arabian
Sea
Americans must remain vigilant against hate
This editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday.
Americans, stand firm. We must prevail in the war against terrorism.
Monday’s bomb blast in Saudi Arabia, which killed at least eight Ameri
cans and many more Saudis, reminds us that the battle continues against
those who slay innocents in the name of religion or some other excuse. Iraq
was only one chapter in a larger war against those whose faith is hate, as
President Bush aptly put it after the bombings.
Saudi leaders regret that “American and Saudi blood run together” on
their soil. But Saudi leaders should not be surprised that blood ran across
their homeland. The stealth invasion has all the markings of al-Qaeda,
whose roots run deep into Saudi soil.
The Saudi government has allowed the venomous form of Islam known
as Wahhabism to spread from Saudi mosques and inspire al-Qaeda ter
rorists. Some even say Saudi royals finance Wahhabism. Whatever the
reality, this much is clear: Saudi Arabia must do a better job of controlling
terrorist cells.
That said, the U.S. needs partners in the Arab world - for its own interest.
From President Bush to U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan,
the U.S. must keep working with the Saudis and other Arab nations. They
can help us identify new waves of hate attacks.
What’s more, as the United States pushes for change within the Persian
Gulf, the region itself can improve. As Kuwaiti political scientist Shafeeq
Ghabra told the Dallas Morning News’ Editorial Board on Tuesday, “The is
sue is reform and change in the region.”
President Bush also must keep pushing for a resolution of the Israeli
Palestinian crisis. The faster Israel feels secure and the sooner Palestinians
get land, the quicker the Mideast can grow stable. And the speedier that re
ality arrives, the more quickly hatred against the U.S. can diminish.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was right to continue with his mission to
Saudi Arabia, which the terrorists certainly timed their attacks around. The
United States cannot flinch in the face of terror. This campaign will be long.
It will be bloody. But it must end. And freedom, not hate, must prevail.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
The trouble with Saudi Arabia
This editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Thursday.
Monday’s terrorist bombing in Riyadh is but one more re
minder of the fatal economic and political contradictions that
riddle Saudi Arabia and its relations with the United States.
Saudi Arabia is one of the most repressive and controlling gov
ernments in the world — supposedly run according to a strict
reading of the Koran—and a fertile ground for terrorist organiza
tions. It is one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East, but also
one of the home bases of al-Qaeda and 15 of the terrorists involved
in the Sept. 11 attacks. Saudis live atop an ocean of oil while their
per capita income and standard of living continually shrivel.
The United States has done the Saudis a couple of grand fa
vors in recent weeks. The American-led coalition removed the
regime of Saddam Hussein, which posed a military threat to Sau
di Arabia. After the fall of Baghdad, the United States announced
that it would withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from Saudi soil. The
presence of those troops has been a source of seething anger from
some Islamic groups in the country; the United States was pre
pared to remove the provocation.
And yet, the Saudis were powerless to prevent the terrorist at
tack on a housing complex in the capital that left at least 34 peo
ple dead, including seven Americans.
As FBI investigators sift through the rubble for clues or expla
nations, the United States must go beyond the decision on its
troops and re-examine its entire relationship with this very trou
bled and troublesome ally. Because Saudi Arabia controls 25 per
cent of the known reserves of oil, America has treated it like the
proverbial 400-pound gorilla that dare not be challenged.
Saudi Arabia sustains a regime of repression and cruelty, along
with groups of religious fanatics and terrorists that threaten the
ruling Saud clan as much as they threaten the United States.
Broad corruption and retrograde social policies—such as ex
cluding women from all facets of society except as child bearers
— have stifled the economic development of Saudi Arabia de
spite its gushers of oil. Unemployment is rampant. Between 1981
and 1997, per-capita income dropped from $19,000 to $7,300 in
constant dollars. Add the fact that nearly half the booming popu
lation is under 14, and you have the ingredients of an economic
and political explosion.
Confronted with Saudi repression and ineffectiveness in deal
ing with terrorist groups, the tendency of the United States, in
cluding the current administration, has been to look the other
way. The mantra has been that its oil makes Saudi Arabia an in
dispensable ally, warts and all.
The Saudis need U.S. petrodollars as much as the United
States needs Saudi oil. The United States is hardly as helpless
as some presume. And as the Iraq war showed, the United
States has other allies in the area capable and willing to coop
erate in regional defense.
The United States must approach its relationship with Saudi
Arabia in sober terms. It must demand cooperation from the Saud
is in rooting out the terrorist groups that operate there and it must
force the Saudi regime to understand that its repression breeds
domestic instability and terrorism. The sooner the current pan
tomime of amicable relations and perpetual smiles is replaced with
a more realistic appraisal of mutual interests, the sooner both
countries will move toward a truly constructive relationship.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
It s hard seeing disgusting
acts of heterosexuals, too
Guest commentary
Oh Vincent Martorano, don’t I
know, don’t I feel for you, what an is
sue, let me extend a hand of comfort
to you.
Just yesterday, I saw two hetero
sexuals walking down the street here
in this litde town of Bend, Ore. Walk
ing hand in hand wasn’t bad enough,
it wasn't a minute before the guy
leaned over and kissed that girl right
on the lips, right on the street, right
in front of me. I would have barfed
on the spot had it not been for the
fact that I hadn’t eaten in a while,
and I had nothing to barf.
Again, they had a dance here re
cently in the high school. Oh Vini,
you wouldn’t believe it, high school
girls and boys were actually danc
ing with one another, holding each
other in sexually expressive ways.
I was outraged.
Now I am as liberal as the next
guy, but I have to tell you I think it
is disgusting when I see males and
females behaving like that. If they
want to have sex and babies, that’s
their business, but it over-popu
lates my planet and all those new
babies are breathing my air. What
is a guy to do?
* I have written legislators and com
plained but to no avail. Most think
that heterosexuals by right ought to
have the same rights as homosexu
als, and if I think it is OK for homo
sexuals to have the right to kiss in
public, then I must allow heterosex
uals to do the same thing.
Well, if I must let them do those
disgusting things, then they could at
least have the decency to do it some
place where I don’t have to look at
them. I understand they are even be
ing allowed to marry one another,
and it is sanctioned by the state. I
would think that the state would
have better things to spend its time
and money on than sanctioning
such filth.
It’s a cruel world, Vini, and I just
don’t know where it will all end.
Keep the faith.
Thomas Davis lives in Bend.
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