From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 11:43:08 MDT
I've noticed a number of people jumping on the band wagon
against bin Laden, and thought I would make some points.
First, it has been reported that the Afganistan government
has bin Laden and some associates under house arrest. If
so and we and up asking them to be turned over to face
trial, we may end up getting them.
Second, I believe I have read somewhere that one of the
primary reasons that bin Laden left Saudi Arabia was
that he was attempting to overthrow the government.
While we are all waving the flag and proclaiming freedom
and democracy we should remember that Saudi Arabia and several
other Arab nations is *not* democracies, they are still
"kingdoms". So, if anything, we should be aligned with
at least some of bin Laden's political perspective.
The obvious reason that we have not pushed the arabic
world harder into creating democracies is obviously
that we (the U.S.) don't want to rock the boat with
regard to our oil addiction. So I think our position
may be at least a little hypocritical.
The history of the last century seems to demonstrate pretty
well that turning Kingdoms or collections of "kingdoms"
(tribes led by chiefs) into democracies probably fails
more often than it succeeds. Now why that is the case,
I am unsure. Whether the U.S. (or even all democratic
nations collectively) have the wisdom on how to conduct
foreign policies that would maximize peaceful transitions
of non-democratic states into democratic states is unclear
to me.
I think a lot more research needs to be done by many people
on the list with regard to both foreign polices by Western
democracies as well as the history and agenda bin Laden
has had before we can determine right and wrong here.
I seem to recall Americans certainly appreciated the
support of the French during the American Revolution.
And of course we *never* committed any acts of terrorism
except for that Tea Party incident.
I find my self asking myself why isn't America supporting bin Laden
in his efforts to unseat the royal family of Saudi Arabia?
Robert
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