Saudi Prisoner Released
I was pleased to see that Sarah Saga is free. So when I asked last week why the Bush administration was not acting, it appears that my question was wrong: they were acting, and had been all along. Although not without pressure from people like Dan Burton, the Wall Street Journal, and (shudder) WorldNet Daily.
However, I have to admit that Wendy McElroy makes some good points about why this was such a thorny issue, and remains such a thorny issue. Unless we were prepared to simply declare war on the Sauds, or do something likely to provoke one (along with more bogus charges of "imperialism"), dealing with this issue was going to be very difficult from day one. And it's going to remain a difficult issue, too.
Dean
I couldnt read the first piece as they required logon and membership. Did they release the children in her custody also? Or did they pull and Elian?
I agree that there's not a lot the US could have done to force the Saudis to comply, and while news of Sarah's release is heartening, the fact that her children will remain in Saudi Arabia suggests that this scenario might play out again in 20 years.
It's human rights fights like this one which make Saudi Arabia's ad campaign in the US even more disgusting. Modern country my ass.
Unfortunately, we can't take the kind of action in Saudi Arabia that we've taken elsewhere to help foster a change to democracy. We can only hope that the kind of internatl push for change we're seeing in Iran (of all places!) will spread to other Mideast countries.
Dean, it may be a thorny problem, but it isn't helped any when State acts like they work more for the Saudis than they do for their own country. :(
I'd be all in favor of some JUSTTIFIED charges of Imperialism against us, if it meant we could take down the House of Saud!
How about if American women take note of what happens in these cases and don't marry men from the Wahhabist Entity? This is a case where the tired phrase "They're not like us" is absolutely true.
That's the way the law (or what barbarism passes for law) is in the Wahhabist Entity, and we cannot, absent conquering the place, extend American law there. When Westerners used to have the right to be governed by their own laws in foreign countries it was called "Extraterritoriality" and came from what were referred to as "unequal treaties" in places like China and the Ottoman Empire. This has been considered, especially by liberals, as one of the greatest sins of 19th century Imperialism. With these cases of American women and their children we see why the European governments demanded such treaties. So American women, don't be so stupid as to marry Wahhabist Arabs.