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U.S.-Saudi Relations Before & After 9/11

Over the years, both United States foreign policy and American public opinion have tended to identify some countries in the Arab Middle East as allies, while others were viewed as enemies. Egypt, once viewed in the 1950s and 1960s as an enemy under Abdel Nasser, became an ally in the 1970s under Anwar Sadat, and has remained generally viewed as an ally. Syria was regarded as an enemy for decades, as was Libya in the 1970s and 1980s, when both countries were closely associated with Middle Eastern terrorism. Their status as enemies has faded somewhat, both in official pronouncements and popular image, though relations remain uneasy. Iraq under Saddam Hussein became, of course, the prime enemy from 1990 until the fall of Saddam Hussein; its current status and future prospects remain uncertain.

On the other side of the coin, Jordan has consistently been viewed in favorable terms. For half a century the same was true of Saudi Arabia. A working US-Saudi alliance was formed in 1944, and persisted thereafter for decades. For the American public, Saudi Arabia was an unfamiliar and exotic land, but in some vague way a friendly one, like something out of the recent movie "Hidalgo."

American public perception changed sharply as a result of a single day: September 11, 2001. Within days after the terrorist hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it was learned that they had been carried out by al-Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, is a Saudi national. It was soon learned that 15 of the 19 hijackers were also Saudis (Calabreze 1). While al-Qaeda and bin Laden had become increasingly notorious for several years previously, the unprecedented enormity of the 9/11 raised American public consciousness to an entirely new level. Saudi Arabia came to be viewed by most Americans in a new and sinister light. Had the US government chosen to respond to the attacks by invading Saudi Arabia instead of Afghanis...

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U.S.-Saudi Relations Before & After 9/11. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:40, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1693716.html