The frustration of the Democrats demonstrates that the current US administration and party members do neither understand the changes underway in our region nor have an interest in following them. They see the entire world through the lenses of their domestic divisions and engage with our region as though the clock had stopped ticking in 2001.
The Democrats have been discussing how best to retaliate to the decision taken by OPEC, with a focus on Saudi Arabia. All they talk about is ending arms sales while repeating empty phrases about human rights. Luckily, this is happening amid remarkable protests in Iran and in the aftermath of the disgraceful US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
I use the term luckily because the Iranians are fed up with the repression they have been subjected to at the hands of their regime. Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to help the criminal Iranian regime get back on its feet- this same regime that has destroyed Iran itself and has been destroying Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, especially after the US invasion of the latter handed Baghdad over to Tehran.
The Democrats talk about stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia as though they were discussing a country expanding along the lines we see Iran doing. The region has changed and is changing, and it is doing so faster than the Democrats can process. Saudi Arabia is obsessively pursuing development, partnership, and investment, not military influence.
The Saudis do not follow the news to find out what is going on in Ukraine or elsewhere. Instead, they watch stocks. They do not spend their days discussing politics but the economy. They do not ask who will win the Midterms but where they will head to in the evening.
They do not ask, “how will I grant my daughter the right to an education” but “where will I find her a job.” They are not debating when women will drive cars but how they can make financial gains so they can buy them cars. The Saudis are not discussing “jihad” and killing, but finding job opportunities to increase their income.
Saudi youths do not speak of gender segregation but the ferocity with which Saudi women compete with them in every line of work. Only the elites in Saudi Arabia talk about politics, and only for brief periods. All other debates are around the changes underway, how to benefit from them, and how to keep up with their blistering pace.
The elites are preoccupied with how to consolidate the gains that have been made and support the man leading the change for fear of regression and the voices of yesterday reemerging. Some of those voices are being defended by Washington under false pretenses. Saudi Arabia does not repress.
The Saudis are well aware of whom they are talking about, their views on 9/11, their promotion of “jihad” in Iraq, and their support for what was mendaciously called the “Arab Spring.” Today, the Saudis are not busy monitoring those who have been sending their children to die in perilous wars. They are preoccupying themselves with supporting the citizens sending their children to study abroad.
The world is changing, and so is Saudi Arabia, and those in Washington have failed to understand the speed at which these changes are unfolding. In our region, we now have two types of competition: the first is a race to escape the sinking Iranian ship, and the second is among the moderate states competing over how best to accelerate development and ameliorate standards of living -- Not a race on who brings fighters to Syria, as Iran is doing, but a race on attracting investments and tourist.
And so, we are in one world and the Democrats in another. We tell them: welcome, please accept our invitation to visit Saudi Arabia and see that the Saudi is keen on buying computers, not weapons. We are taking this direction despite the fact that we were fated to have an evil, destructive neighbor in Iran that is wreaking havoc across the region. Regardless, and despite the revolution that the Iranians themselves are waging against this regime, the Democrats nonetheless want to help it back to its feet.
Visit us so you can see the difference. Come criticize us in Riyadh. Listen to our response; there is no harm in that.
