Four separate overnight bombing attacks struck Western targets including residential compounds in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, causing an undetermined number of deaths and dozens of injured, Saudi officials and diplomats said today.
The United States Embassy in Riyadh said 44 Americans had been injured, some of them seriously, and there were local press reports of at least three deaths. The three were identified as a Saudi, a Lebanese and one Westerner. Neither the American nor the British Embassies could confirm that any of its citizens had been killed, but both said they expect the casualty figures to rise during the day.
…Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, due to travel to Saudi Arabia from Jordan today, said at an early morning news conference in Amman that the violence had likely been carried out by Al Qaeda, since it bore its hallmarks.” NY Times
What exactly does it mean these days to say that an attack bears the hallmarks of al Qaeda? Little more than that it is an Islamist reaction to the US’s continued projection of force into the Middle East, which the WoT® and the invasion of Iraq have intensified. I’ve always found the thesis attractive that one of the underlying incentives for us to seize Iraq was to establish another power base in the region and end our assailable reliance on the vulnerable Saudi regime. Confirmatory evidence comes in Rumsfeld’s announcement, as soon as the Iraqi adventure was brought to a satisfying conclusion, that the
US will withdraw all combat forces from Saudi Arabia by this summer, ending military presence that began as joint operation to contain Saddam Hussein after 1991 Persian Gulf war but has become dangerous for US troops because of terrorism stoked by Osama bin Laden; US anger has also swelled since Sept 11 terrorist attacks in which 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudi; Sec Donald Rumsfeld and Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz say in news conference in Riyadh that ouster of Hussein creates ‘safer region’ that allows pullout; photos; only small longstanding training program will continue; US is already pulling out of sprawling air base for new base in Qatar; prince denies asking US to withdraw, but announcement is broadcast on television; Saudis have suggested departure will help them institute political reforms (M) The United States said today that it would withdraw all combat forces in Saudi Arabia by this summer, ending more than a decade of military operations in this strategic Middle East nation that is America’s largest oil supplier. NY Times
It is not so much that the region is safer, it seems, as that it is too dangerous for us to stay in Saudi Arabia. This may be where the otherwise too-simplistic war-for-oil thesis comes in. Of course, we’d also remain in a position to project force back into a fundamentalist Arabia after the House of Saud is overthrown, if it is strategically necessary.
