Interesting story about the house of Saud and our country's ties to it.
Listening to the audio book version. Only 1 hour into it and it's very
disturbing. International politics and world affairs eye opener...
kinda like Fast Food Nation did for my notion of McDonalds. Worth
reading, even if it pisses you off about world we live in and the
reliance on oil we can't give up. Damn my suv... but it's such a nice
vehicle... :(
3/6/06 Follow up...
Saw a History Channel special on the development of militant Islam and it gave a more level handed perspective than that of this book's accont (though most of his arguments against the Saudi family still sound valid). A fuller history (from the time of Muhammad) paints a different portrait of the people and religion. Though their intolerance of the West and changing times is easy to dismiss as dogmatic and medieval, I don't think Europe and America have a much to stand on given their own histories. It's hard to have a perspective on it when living through the times (and of course not having been impacted in any of the acts of terrorism). I get the impression that like in war, the good guys and the bad guys appear to be determined by who wins and who happens to write the histories.
3/6/06 Follow up...
Saw a History Channel special on the development of militant Islam and it gave a more level handed perspective than that of this book's accont (though most of his arguments against the Saudi family still sound valid). A fuller history (from the time of Muhammad) paints a different portrait of the people and religion. Though their intolerance of the West and changing times is easy to dismiss as dogmatic and medieval, I don't think Europe and America have a much to stand on given their own histories. It's hard to have a perspective on it when living through the times (and of course not having been impacted in any of the acts of terrorism). I get the impression that like in war, the good guys and the bad guys appear to be determined by who wins and who happens to write the histories.