"Changing Conditions" First Right Idea Out of POTUS43

In his pre-vacation press conference today, W suggested that we have to change the conditions that lead people to carry out suicide attacks against us. For the first time, he's right.

The conditions that exist in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the UAE (you know, the countries that the 9/11 terrorists came from, not Iraq) are repressive governments propped up by American political support in exchange for some regular errand they do for us (suppressing democracy and protecting access to oil are the big ones), and religious distractions promoted by those governments to focus the people's wrath away from them. Unfortunately, it gets focused onto us.

Not that it's incorrect to start there. After all, from the perspective of a revolutionary Saudi citizen, there's no removing the royal family as long as that family is wrapped around our finger. It's easier to convince us to let go beforehand, rather than try cutting through our pinky. I don't think blowing up buildings is the way to do that, but then again, Bin Laden isn't looking to get us to separate from the Saudi's, he's looking for regional revolution with us as the catalyst. So he misguides the revolutionary and desperate about the strategic purpose of their missions.

But I digress. These people become desperate because their home countries have systems that make economic and political freedom seem impossible for the majority of citizens. The Saudi's actually bring in immigrant labor from the east for the oil industry to keep their own people dependant on handouts, instead of economically independent. And in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the only way to have a public voice is to be close friends or family with the ruling class and tow the line.

So if W is serious about changing the conditions that foster suicide bombers, he should probably start by reconsidering that arms deal he's looking to make with Saudi Arabia. That's unlikely, so for once we're having a purely academic discussion about something that came out of this administration.