Saudi have not experienced colonization. Their country was not subjected to foreign rule and none of its citizens suffered the atrocities and humiliation typical of colonial rule. Yet Saudi Arabia is extremely sensitive when it comes to foreigners occupying and ruling other people’s lands. They detest colonization more than many who have tasted the bitterness of foreign rule.
The overwhelming majority of Saudis view the war against Iraq as colonial war. They see in what is happening in Iraq every day the American desire to control the country and plunder its resources.
We might not find a historical explanation for this, but it clearly has to do with Islamic and nationalist feelings, where foreign domination is detested no matter how sweet the promises made by the foreigners.
For decades the peoples of the Arab region have suffered from oppression, humiliation and wars imposed on them from outside. This has been done either through direct occupation of the land and control of its natural wealth and political future or by using other means for political and military gains. Not once in the past 90 years has the region enjoyed a decade of calm. Every ten years a terrible war is forced on the region, consuming its resources and plunging it further into backwardness.
There was the Palestinian war in 1947, the aggression by the British, French and Israelis against Egypt in 1956, the 1967 Middle East war, the Lebanese civil war of 1975, the Iran-Iraq war of 1980s, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the Gulf war in 1990/1991 and the ongoing second Gulf war. Some of these wars were planned outside the region, but there was also civil strife in Sudan, Algeria, Yemen and Lebanon or wars for independence against colonial powers.
It is no surprise that most of these wars inflamed nationalistic and religious feelings against foreigners viewed as greedy imperialists seeking to occupy the land and loot its resources. This feeling is prevalent even among those who have not been subjected to foreign rule, like the Saudis. The solution to any country’s problems lies in the big powers leaving the people of that country to resolve their problems by themselves. These powers could still help to establish security and stability and effect development without direct intervention.
Arab News From the Local Press 1 April 2003
