Editorial: More barbarism

Saudi Arabia is the new front for anti-Americanism

Saturday, June 19, 2004

If anyone thought Iraq was perilous, he hasn't seen anything yet. Saudi Arabia, where the beheaded body of kidnapped American civilian Paul M. Johnson Jr. was found yesterday, is emitting steam and about to blow. The stakes for the United States there are much higher there than they ever were in Iraq.

There are three fundamental facts about Saudi Arabia. The first is that it has lots of oil, the largest reserves in the world. The second is that it is profoundly Muslim and its king is the protector of two of Islam's holiest places. The third is that its government, a family affair, is at the bottom of the list in terms of democracy and human rights.

It is the oil that has served as the basis of U.S.-Saudi relations, starting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud in the 1940s, when America needed Saudi crude to wage the Second World War. The Saudis have come through, time and time again, most recently to twist the arm of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries when that group of countries was looking to cut production to push up prices even further.

The United States and the Saudi Arabian ruling group have been further joined by al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist elements, and therein lies the trouble. Al-Qaida, which never liked the Saudi regime but could not generate enough enthusiasm to topple it, has now seized on the ruling group's relationship with the United States to attack it. Al-Qaida is using the tools of terrorism -- car bombs, kidnappings, televised threats and now a beheading -- to strike fear.

Al-Qaida is essentially telling the Saudis to give up its American umbrella of protection and it won't be hurt. The Saudi rulers know this isn't true, and that what Osama bin Laden and his cohorts want is to get rid of them and the Americans. Hence the barbaric death that the terrorists handed Mr. Johnson, a civilian employed by Lockheed Martin, after their demand for the release of al-Qaida prisoners was not met by the Saudis.

The worst part for the United States is that it helped create the predicament facing it and the Saudi rulers. Saudi Arabia agreed with some reluctance to host U.S. troops in the first war against Iraq. But they didn't go home afterward, thus riling up and handing a cause to Muslim extremists who see the U.S. forces' presence as compromising Saudi independence at best and sacrilege at worst.

Then the Bush administration declared that it was going to democratize the Arabs. Saudi Arabia became missionary target number one, which alarmed the Saudi leadership and invited the attacks by al-Qaida. The second Iraq war was the next blow; the Saudis didn't like Saddam Hussein much, but favored a U.S. invasion of Iraq even less. The absence of a credible U.S. approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue was the last straw.

How does the United States get itself and the Saudi government out of this mess? Answer: Step by cautious step.

Get out of Iraq. Cool the talk about democratizing the Arab states. Develop a new, serious policy for bringing about peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Otherwise, get braced for more violence and barbarism in Saudi Arabia, which will disrupt world fuel supplies and risk putting that country's oil in the hands of Islamic extremists.

The Saudis were right not to buckle to terrorist demands, and our sympathy goes out to the family of Paul Johnson. But unless the administration changes course, more Americans, not fewer, will be risking such brutality.