Demosophia

An Emerging Theme?

Dan Darling has a post about Saudi Arabia that describes a society so dysfunctional it coud give the word "society" a bad name. But rather than suggest that we pick sides, he advises that we regard the whole mess the way we saw Naziism, and just crush it completely. He isn't taken in by the affected westernization:

Hassan Turabi, the NIF ideologue who reintroduced slavery to Sudan and helped to stir up a genocidal war against Christians and animists in the southern regions of the country, was once hailed as "Westernized" because he had been educated in France. The same goes for Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the member of House Saud that according to Gerald Posner's account of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation, was named as the key contact between al-Qaeda and the royal family. Before Posner's book came out, the late Prince Ahmed was mainly remembered for the fact that one of his horses won the Kentucky Derby in 2002.

Well OK, but just how is it possible to crush the Saudis without igniting a global conflict between Islam and the West? I mean, I'm game if someone can tell me how that works. Reinstall the Hashemites? What?

You see, I'm not really so extreme after all. And Wretchard at the Belmont Club feels we need to declare forever illegitimate "all payments of tribute and inducements to dhimmutude," which clearly includes oil revenue to Saudi Arabia. That's not just an effort to "manage the problem," but a commitment to permanently erase Wahhabism. Tantamount to an Emancipation Proclamation? I like the sound of that, but it makes me tremble.

Do these posts, plus the Victor Davis Hanson piece about a new iron curtain constitute an emerging theme? It's a lot more radical than what we're doing now, but way short of total war. God help me, I find it appealing, and as I said, vastly preferable to the "dominant solution."

Posted by Demosophist at January 3, 2004 12:42 AM | TrackBack