Despite differences between Saudi Arabia and the United States over some regional and global issues there is no doubt that both countries need each other in the fight against Daesh.
The San Bernardino and Orlando attacks in the US, the murders in Paris and the coordinated bombings in Jeddah, Qatif and Madinah illustrate only too vividly the threat against global stability.
CIA Director John Brennan seems to understand the vital nature of the counterterrorism partnership between the Kingdom and the US. He appreciates Saudi Arabia’s experience in fighting extremists, pointing to its successful campaign against Al-Qaeda a decade ago. “Saudi Arabia is among our closest counterterrorism partners,” Brennan said in a recent speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Yet Brennan falls into the same trap of many high US government officials who feel the need to examine Saudi society for its “faults” in an effort to either assign blame for the growth of militancy or convey the message that Saudi Arabia could do more in curbing terrorist acts.
In his speech, Brennan in effect offered Saudi Arabia a left-handed compliment on its counterterrorism efforts by following up his praise with this:
“There is no light switch that can transition a country like Saudi Arabia, that just a generation or so ago was really anchored in a very traditional environment. They have all the trappings of modernization, but yet the environment, the culture, the society and the religious traditions really have not yet adapted to the 21st century world, which is one of the things the Saudis are having to deal with.”
I can’t really quibble with the message here. After all, anybody who has followed my work over the years knows full well that I often complain about Saudi Arabia’s snail's pace in moving into the 21st century.
But the difference in Brennan’s criticism and mine is that I am Saudi, I live here and I can freely examine Saudi society’s faults without the foul odor of hypocrisy.
Brennan, on the other hand, has missed the mark in his observations about my country because his own modern, secular and democratic nation is burdened with its own problems that have more or less infected the rest of the world. How does a respected high-level US government law-enforcement official pass judgment on a country’s cultural and religious traditions when his own country is mired in divisiveness not seen since the American Civil War?
Even 13 years after the invasion of Iraq, the world is still reeling from the war’s disastrous effects. And the condemnations continue in 2016 with the recent Chilcot Report on the United Kingdom’s unsavory role in the war and Jean Edward Smith’s new book, “Bush,” which basically builds a case that the George W. Bush administration committed crimes against humanity.
OK, perhaps that is a cheap shot because Tony Blair and George Bush are easy and obvious targets. But when someone like Brennan feels the need to comment on Saudi Arabia’s cultural and religious values, he should pause a moment to observe just how well a modern and secular society is doing in its own backyard. The modern and secular society he lives in is buried under a mountain of guns responsible for almost weekly mass shootings across the US and yet Congress is paralyzed to do anything about it since many representatives are beholden to the pro-gun lobby.
The world is now routinely treated to video feeds of young African-Americans slain by police officers and at least one young American African taking revenge by gunning down five Dallas police officers.
Middle-class white Americans are apparently feeling marginalized by the growing ethnic minority population and missing out on the promises of a white middle-class suburban life. Or as the New York Times put it, missing out on the “power” and “privilege” being white. In addition, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that there are nearly 900 hate groups operating in the US.
A modern, secular society — a society with the delusion that western democracy is the answer to the world’s ills — does not have the authority to set the standard for cultural and religious traditions of non-secular countries. The West over the past decade has provided plenty of evidence that it does not possess the credentials to export some of its dubious values to developing nations. Its misplaced righteousness in its moral certainty that it has the right answers for global peace and harmony would be laughable if not so sad.
Brennan has his heart in the right place, but if there is anyone and anything hopelessly lost in the 20th century, it’s him and the country he represents.
The San Bernardino and Orlando attacks in the US, the murders in Paris and the coordinated bombings in Jeddah, Qatif and Madinah illustrate only too vividly the threat against global stability.
CIA Director John Brennan seems to understand the vital nature of the counterterrorism partnership between the Kingdom and the US. He appreciates Saudi Arabia’s experience in fighting extremists, pointing to its successful campaign against Al-Qaeda a decade ago. “Saudi Arabia is among our closest counterterrorism partners,” Brennan said in a recent speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Yet Brennan falls into the same trap of many high US government officials who feel the need to examine Saudi society for its “faults” in an effort to either assign blame for the growth of militancy or convey the message that Saudi Arabia could do more in curbing terrorist acts.
In his speech, Brennan in effect offered Saudi Arabia a left-handed compliment on its counterterrorism efforts by following up his praise with this:
“There is no light switch that can transition a country like Saudi Arabia, that just a generation or so ago was really anchored in a very traditional environment. They have all the trappings of modernization, but yet the environment, the culture, the society and the religious traditions really have not yet adapted to the 21st century world, which is one of the things the Saudis are having to deal with.”
I can’t really quibble with the message here. After all, anybody who has followed my work over the years knows full well that I often complain about Saudi Arabia’s snail's pace in moving into the 21st century.
But the difference in Brennan’s criticism and mine is that I am Saudi, I live here and I can freely examine Saudi society’s faults without the foul odor of hypocrisy.
Brennan, on the other hand, has missed the mark in his observations about my country because his own modern, secular and democratic nation is burdened with its own problems that have more or less infected the rest of the world. How does a respected high-level US government law-enforcement official pass judgment on a country’s cultural and religious traditions when his own country is mired in divisiveness not seen since the American Civil War?
Even 13 years after the invasion of Iraq, the world is still reeling from the war’s disastrous effects. And the condemnations continue in 2016 with the recent Chilcot Report on the United Kingdom’s unsavory role in the war and Jean Edward Smith’s new book, “Bush,” which basically builds a case that the George W. Bush administration committed crimes against humanity.
OK, perhaps that is a cheap shot because Tony Blair and George Bush are easy and obvious targets. But when someone like Brennan feels the need to comment on Saudi Arabia’s cultural and religious values, he should pause a moment to observe just how well a modern and secular society is doing in its own backyard. The modern and secular society he lives in is buried under a mountain of guns responsible for almost weekly mass shootings across the US and yet Congress is paralyzed to do anything about it since many representatives are beholden to the pro-gun lobby.
The world is now routinely treated to video feeds of young African-Americans slain by police officers and at least one young American African taking revenge by gunning down five Dallas police officers.
Middle-class white Americans are apparently feeling marginalized by the growing ethnic minority population and missing out on the promises of a white middle-class suburban life. Or as the New York Times put it, missing out on the “power” and “privilege” being white. In addition, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that there are nearly 900 hate groups operating in the US.
A modern, secular society — a society with the delusion that western democracy is the answer to the world’s ills — does not have the authority to set the standard for cultural and religious traditions of non-secular countries. The West over the past decade has provided plenty of evidence that it does not possess the credentials to export some of its dubious values to developing nations. Its misplaced righteousness in its moral certainty that it has the right answers for global peace and harmony would be laughable if not so sad.
Brennan has his heart in the right place, but if there is anyone and anything hopelessly lost in the 20th century, it’s him and the country he represents.
