Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Whither Saudi Arabia? Yesterday, NPR had experts discussing Al Qaeda and what it wants to accomplish. One guy said something to the effect that, "If the United States is Al Qaeda's #1 enemy, then Saudi Arabia is #1a." His conclusion was that Al Qaeda hates the current Saudi royalty in charge and wants to conduct its own regime change, as evidenced by the terrorist attacks there over the weekend.

I'm a little confused by this because I've heard so much about Saudi Arabia secretly giving aid to terrorists, including Al Qaeda. John Kerry even highlighted the connection between Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia in one of his recent national-security speeches.

Is Saudi Arabia trying to play both sides? Or are different elements within the government supporting different sides? It doesn't look like the answers are clear, and just goes to show how complicated this war on terrorism is and will be. Don't expect any easy answers.