(1951-2009)
Taking Saudi
Out of Arabia
Faleceu em 8 de Outubro de 2009, em Washington DC, de causas naturais, o geostrategista francês Laurent Murawiec.
EM 2002 ao realizar uma apresentação no Pentágono e acusar a Arábia Saudita como a financiadora e principal impulsionadora do terrorismo causou uma enorme agitação. Foi obrigado a se afastar da RAND, e no início de 2003 entrou no Hudson Institute.
Publicou vários livros, seus dois últimos foram muito elogiados; "Princes of Darkness (2005)," sobre a influência da Arábia Saudita no terrorismo. O outro livro "The Mind of Jihad (2008)," analisa os objetivos e motivações da Jihad.
Nenhum de seus livros foi traduzido para o português.
Republicamos abaixo a sua célebre apresentação no Pentágono em 2002.. Conteúdo que continua atual.
O Editor
Laurent Murawiec
RAND
Defense Policy Board
July 10, 2002
1
Taking Saudi out of Arabia:
Contents
• The Arab Crisis
• "Saudi" Arabia
• Strategies
The Arab Crisis
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The systemic crisis of
the Arab World
• The Arab world has been in a systemic crisis for the last 200 years
• It missed out on the industrial revolution, it is missing out on the digital revolution
• Lack of inner resources to cope with modern world
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Shattered Arab self-esteem
• Shattered self-esteem
• Could God be wrong?
• Turn the rage against those who contradict God: the West, object of hatred
• A whole generation of violently anti-Western, anti-American, anti-modern shock-troops
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What has the Arab world
produced?
• Since independence, wars have been the principal output of the Arab world
• Demographic and economic problems made intractable by failure to establish stable polities aiming at prosperity
• All Arab states are either failing states or threatened to fail
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reaches a climax
• The tension between the Arab world and the modern world has reached a climax
• The Arab world's home-made problems overwhelm its ability to cope
• The crisis is consequently being exported to the rest of the world
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How does change occur in the
Arab world?
• There is no agora, no public space for debating ideas, interests, policies
• The tribal group in power blocks all avenues of change, represses all advocates of change
• Plot, riot, murder, coup are the only available means to bring about political change
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The continuation of politics by other
means?
• In the Arab world, violence is not a continuation of politics by other means — violence is politics, politics is violence
• This culture of violence is the prime enabler of terrorism
• Terror as an accepted, legitimate means of carrying out politics, has been incubated for 30 years …
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The crisis cannot be contained to the
Arab world alone
• The crisis has irreversibly spilled out of the region
• 9/11 was a symptom of the "overflow"
• The paroxysm is liable to last for several decades
• U.S. response will decisively influence the duration and outcome
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"Saudi" Arabia
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The old partnership
• Once upon a time, there was a partnership between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia
• Partnerships, like alliances, are embodied in practices, ideas, policies, institutions, people — which persist after the alliance has died
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"Saudi" Arabia
• An instable group: Since 1745, 58% of all rulers of the House of Saud have met a violent demise
• Wahhabism loathes modernity, capitalism, human rights, religious freedom, democracy, republics, an open society — and practices the very opposite
• As long as enmity had no or little consequences outside the kingdom, the bargain between the House of Saud and the U.S. held
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Means, motive, opportunity
• 1973: Saudi Arabia unleashes the Oil Shock, absorbs immense flows of resources — means
• 1978: Khomeiny challenges the Saudis' Islamic credentials, provoking a radicalization and world-wide spread of Wahhabism in response — motive
• 1979-1989: the anti-Soviet Jihad gives life and strength to the Wahhabi putsch within Sunni Islam — opportunity. The Taliban are the result
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The impact on Saudi policy
• Wahhabism moves from Islam's lunatic fringe to center-stage — its mission now extends world-wide
• Saudis launch a putsch within Sunni Islam
• Shift from pragmatic oil policy to promotion of radical Islam
• Establish Saudi as "the indispensable State" — treasurers of radical, fundamentalist, terrorist groups
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Saudis see themselves
• God placed the oil in the kingdom as a sign of divine approval
• Spread Wahhabism everywhere, but keep the power of the al-Saud undiminished
• Survive by creating a Wahhabi-friendly environment — fundamentalist regimes — throughout the Moslem world and beyond
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The House of Saud today
• Saudi Arabia is central to the self-destruction of the Arab world and the chief vector of the Arab crisis and its outwardly-directed aggression
• The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader
• Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our allies
• A daily outpouring of virulent hatred against the U.S. from Saudi media, "educational" institutions, clerics, officials — Saudis tell us one thing in private, do the contrary in reality
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Strategies
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What is to be done?
• During and after World War I, Britain's India Office backed the House of Saud; the Foreign Office backed the Hashemites. The India Office won
• But the entire post-1917 Middle East settlement designed by the British to replace the Ottoman Empire is fraying
• The role assigned to the House of Saud in that arrangement has become obsolete — and nefarious
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"Saudi Arabia" is not a God-given entity
• The House of Saud was given dominion over Arabia in 1922 by the British
• It wrested the Guardianship of the Holy Places — Mecca and Medina — from the Hashemite dynasty
• There is an "Arabia," but it needs not be "Saudi"
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An ultimatum to the House of Saud
• Stop any funding and support for any fundamentalist madrasa, mosque, ulama, predicator anywhere in the world
• Stop all anti-U.S., anti-Israeli, anti-Western predication, writings, etc., within Arabia
• Dismantle, ban all the kingdom's "Islamic charities," confiscate their assets
• Prosecute or isolate those involved in the terror chain, including in the Saudi intelligence services
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Or else …
• What the House of Saud holds dear can be targeted:
—Oil: the old fields are defended by U.S. forces, and located in a mostly Shiite area
—Money: the Kingdom is in dire financial straits, its valuable assets invested in dollars, largely in the U.S.
—The Holy Places: let it be known that alternatives are being canvassed
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Other Arabs?
• The Saudis are hated throughout the Arab world: lazy, overbearing, dishonest, corrupt
• If truly moderate regimes arise, the Wahhabi-Saudi nexus is pushed back into its extremist corner
• The Hashemites have greater legitimacy as Guardians of Mecca and Medina
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Grand strategy for the Middle East
• Iraq is the tactical pivot
• Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot
• Egypt the prize
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