Congressmen and Congresswomen, wish to refer to the recent House of Representatives vote prohibiting any aid to Saudi Arabia. The legislation calls for a blockage of any further financial assistance extended by the US government in training Saudis in counter-terrorism and border security operations.
Congressmen and Congresswomen, wish to refer to the recent House of Representatives vote prohibiting any aid to Saudi Arabia. The legislation calls for a blockage of any further financial assistance extended by the US government in training Saudis in counter-terrorism and border security operations.
We are told that the US government provided $2.5 million to this training program in 2005 and 2006, which the US House of Representatives seeks to block in future. While the ban on such aid would not have even the slightest impact on Saudi Arabia, what bothers me is the argument advanced in justifying such a ban.
According to press reports, the lawmakers have accused the Kingdom of religious intolerance and bankrolling terrorist organizations.
Kindly allow me to declare that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. When we talk of religious intolerance, the U.S., unfortunately, projects a poor image of a country that has become increasingly intolerant of Islam and symbols identified with this faith.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has documented numerous cases of Muslims being harassed in the US, mosques were damaged, women in veil being humiliated, and others discriminated against in schools and offices on grounds of their religious belief. No one ever hears of any gentleman wearing a skull cap being the subject of individual or media attention.
Congressmen and Congresswomen, as you are, are no doubt, aware, That Saudi Arabia is the home of the Islamic world’s two holiest mosques. Its position is similar to that of the Vatican, which is the seat of the Catholic world. I do not think that nuns in Rome or anywhere else in the world, including Muslim countries, would ever invite hostile attention for moving about with their faces covered. After all, such an appendage is part of their faith, which they must practice.
As for the charge against the Saudi government that it is funding terrorist outfits, I Submit that such allegation is baseless, to say the least. After all, the Kingdom is a staunch ally of America in the war against terrorism. We have suffered heavily in the past and continue to bear the brunt of funding the war on terror not only in the Kingdom but also abroad.
We are even footing the bill on behalf of the US government when it trains the security forces of its allies. So I beg to differ with the Congressmen and Congresswomen when they accuse us of funding terrorist organizations. On the other hand, there is strong evidence of the US government bringing down democratically elected governments by masterminding coups and aiding and abetting the opponents of regime not favorably inclined toward Washington. You can identify such countries in your own backyard in Latin America.
Congressmen and Congresswomen, I Submit that the US government’s failure to be even-handed in dealing with its allies will jeopardize its own national interest in the long run. The fact that it went to war in Iraq on the false premise that it possessed weapons of mass destruction has created a situation in which it is being deserted by its own allies. It has incurred an expenditure of $ 19 billion on the war bill during the last four years. Moreover, it has created enemies in the Muslim world, which see the US as a staunch ally of Israel, even when it violates Security Council resolutions or kills innocent women and children.
No wonder, the US has got badly trapped in Iraq and Afghanistan, where all its attempts for an exit strategy have failed. It also faces an explosive situation in Iran and North Korea even as it tries to cope with an increasingly alienated Europe and an assertive China.
The steady rise of China and India in the east and Brazil in Latin America provides an eloquent testimony to the fact that the high-handed policy that the US followed as a super power is no longer acceptable to the international community, which has thrown its weight behind the new emerging powers. So from a unit-polar world dominated by the US for some 15 years, we are now moving toward a multi-polar world to challenge the US might and put up a united front against its acts of injustice and inequities.
Congressmen and Congresswomen, there was a time when the US evoked respect and admiration worldwide for its track record in safeguarding human rights, as a bastion of democracy, and as a magnet for talented people everywhere. Today, in the aftermath of 9/11 and the events that followed in Afghanistan and Iraq, the name of America creates fear and triggers negative emotions. I know people with multiple entry visas unwilling to go there for fear of being detained indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay on some trumped-up charge.
Their only concern is that they are Muslims and their religious affiliation (Islam) could land them in trouble. Maybe, their fears are misplaced. But the fact that they feel apprehensive only in relation to the US and no other country does not speak highly of America worthy of a visit, when it is the most advanced country in the world in terms of science and technology as well as its economic prowess.
Yet, when the US government talks of bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East, it raises anxiety instead of excitement. We are reminded of the horror that has visited the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, who are being tortured in the name of freedom and democracy that your government promises them.
Our conscience was also jolted by the acts of injustice that the US and its European allies committed against the Palestinians for voting Hamas into power in the elections that independent observers described as free and fair. In other words, people have no right to exercise their own choice. If they do so, they will have to pay a heavy price by being starved of their own legitimate sources of revenue or any international aid.
There was a time when Britain, during its heyday as a colonial power for over two centuries, used to exploit and subjugate the people in the Afro-Asian countries in the name of ‘carrying the white man’s burden.- To turn the metaphor around, the US seems to be bearing the self-imposed task of ‘carrying the Arab burden- of lifting him from the depths of darkness to the light of ‘freedom and democracy- seen from your country’s perspective.
When, in the name of freedom and democracy, the US administration plants a puppet regime in a country that it has invaded and runs it with the support of corrupt elements drawn from that society as in Iraq, they will naturally allow its resources to be exploited. Together with the game of divide-and-rule, it has created a situation that has become a breeding ground for terrorism.
Clearly, the US war on terror has failed. The world today is less secure than it was prior to 9/11. And the shape of things to come predict a dark future for the Muslim world.
Congressmen and Congresswomen, in my submission I have nowhere blamed the great American people. My accusing finger is pointing only toward the US administration led by President George W. Bush. It is still possible for the US to try to refurbish its image, which is now in tatters, if fair-minded people from both sides join hands in their common quest for peace and goodwill.
Official statistics show that despite the US administration’s hostile attitude toward the Gulf States, American exports to Arab countries are projected to reach a record $ 45 billion in 2007. According to David Hamod, president of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce, US exports to 22 Arab countries shot up by 28 percent in 2006 to reach a record level of $35 billion, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia accounting for more than half of the total.
Yet, despite such an impressive growth in the US trade with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Dubai Ports World was denied permission to run some key US ports after the US Congress and some New York legislators opposed it. So, while we Arabs extended our hands of friendship by boosting imports from the US, your administration believes in unequal partnership. There is no quid pro quo or a spirit of give and take in our relationship.
The reason, Congressmen and Congresswomen, is transparent, as far as we are concerned. As long as the US administration remains committed to a one-point agenda of looking at the Arab world from the Israeli perspective, its approach toward our region will continue to be biased, even if such a policy runs counter to America’s national interest. In any other country of the world, people working for the interest of a third country would be dubbed �traitors’ or Quislings. Shockingly enough, not only are such elements tolerated by the US administration, but they also enjoy an enormous clout.
The choice, ultimately, is yours. The US administration should recognize the fact that it stands to win a great deal by being fair and even-handed in its relations with the Arab world. Otherwise, it will continue to lose billions of dollars in trade and investment opportunities to its competitors in Europe, China, India and Brazil. Bilateral trade between China and Saudi Arabia rocketed to $13.1 billion by August 2006, a 31 percent increase over the same period last year. Of this Chinese exports to the Kingdom accounted for $3 billion, a 26 percent increase over the same period in 2005, and imports from Saudi Arabia $10.1 billion, up 33 percent for the same period last year. Whether the US government will see the writing on the wall is again a $64 million question.
This Article was publish last 2007-08-03 on various news papers…
Turki Faisal Al Rasheed, chairman of Golden Grass Inc a Saudi businessman. Own websites dedicated to Saudi affairs.