Done the Math
by R Hampton from Red State
More than six years have lapsed since "the day the world changed," and today President George W. Bush issued the following Memorandum for the Secretary of State
I hereby certify that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to combat international terrorism and that the proposed assistance will help facilitate that effort, and hereby waive the application of such sections. You are authorized and directed to report this certification to the Congress and publish it in the Federal Register.This proclamation comes less than 24 hours after the The US Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized Saudi Arabia for a lack of religious freedom and for schools that promote religious extremism. Even more concerning was the commission's call to close the Islamic Saudi Academy in northern Virginia.
The commission's report says the academy hews closely to the curriculum used at Saudi schools, which they criticize for promoting hatred of and intolerance against Jews, Christians and Shiite Muslims. "Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States."Now I'm far from the first to observe that long-term sucess in the Long War is, depressingly, unlikely using a bipolar (and I would say delusional) strategy. Yet some hawks look at the ledger, add up the positives and negatives, and sheepishly protest that a pro-Saudi policy has bottom-line value. Resigning ourselves to Saudi Arabia's support of militant, extremist Wahhabi islam, however, is nothing short of sabotage.
That is what prompted me to blog a daily accounting of our deadly dependency on the enablers of Islamofascism. In the face of such overwhelming evidence -- over 800 stories logged since April -- I can not imagine the War on Terror can continue without a serious re-think. Problem is, the Bush Administration has done the math and concluded, in error, that a pro-Saudi policy in the correct answer.