Atlantic-Community.org has a note, referenced to Asia Times Online [but I can’t find it] stating that
“General Petraeus has given Saudi Arabia control over aid to Pakistan. ++ It is hoped that a series of religious decrees against terrorism and a continued debate on inter-religious dialogue with Saudi support will reach troubled areas in Pakistan. ++ Saudi involvement risks pulling them into a quagmire of politics and military action. ++ However, the US, Saudis and Pakistanis engaging militants individually can have results.”
I cannot internalize how a general so reputedly intelligent could do something so transparently unwise. Yes, Pakistan has, as the article says, “failed” to produce the kind of results we want on “the war on terror”, but to make use of Saudi Arabia to remedy the situation is folly beyond measure. If the Pakistanis are conflicted about how they want to make use of Islamic ideals to motivate their citizenry, Saudi Arabia has to be at least as conflicted. Indeed, they admit to carrying on a low-grace civil war against their own “jehadists.” Can Petraeus be unaware of the many times in Saudi history that various extreme Islamist groups have become major problems for government control? How can Saudi theologians, wahhabi theologians at that, develop the kinds of theological decrees that would rein in extremists in “troubled areas” of Pakistan?
I am dumbfounded and horrified. Dear Lord, save us.
[click on the title for a link to the source]
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