There is in the U.S. very little attempt at understanding other cultures.

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There is in the U.S. very little attempt at understanding other cultures.

Arab friends of mine have described situations in Saudi Arabia that are extremely volatile. Apparently Osama bin Laden, and many average Saudis who live in the U.S., feel very unhappy with U.S. influence in Saudi Arabia. Some Saudis think that there should be political parties and democracy in Saudi Arabia. However, the U.S. government strongly supports the dictatorial regime of the house of Al Saud. Residents of Saudi Arabia, for example, are not allowed to leave the country without an exit visa. They are potentially prisoners of their own country.

Why not ask ourselves why Osama bin Laden is willing to go to so much trouble to promote terrorism. Maybe we would learn something. I am NOT saying Osama bin Laden is right about anything, and definitely his violence is reprehensible. Nevertheless it may help to understand him. According to Arabs to whom I've talked, there is considerable good reason to be dissatisfied with the secret actions of the U.S. government in Saudi Arabia.

An Arab on a September 22, 2001 ABC News TV broadcast said about the terrorists, "What drives these people? Why is that question not being asked?"

As other people have said in the past, the U.S. government has a history of supporting corrupt dictatorships. For examples, see the poorly named but interesting article, Friendly Dictators [thirdworldtraveler.com]. This article lists 42 destructive dictators with whom the U.S. government has been involved. I have independent knowledge, from reading books and articles, of only 8 of them; for those 8 the information is correct, but very brief.

The U.S. government supported Pakistan against India! India is the world's most populous democracy.

As was already mentioned, it has been suggested that the preference for supporting dictatorships is due to U.S. government corruption. A dictator is almost certain to be willing to support embezzlement of U.S. government money, and to keep it secret. Trying to arrange embezzlement would be dangerous in a democracy because everything is so public there would be a likelihood of being discovered.

The U.S. government has three separate, very large agencies that function as global secret police: the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. The first two are authorized to kill other people. These agencies are secret in two senses: Their activities are hidden from the people of the U.S., even though the U.S. is a democracy. They also have secret budgets. These agencies function everywhere in the world, including inside the United States.

These agencies are police because they expect to have forceful control. They expect to be able to influence other countries without any acceptance from the people of those countries, and often directly against the will of those people. These agencies are allowed to do things that are illegal for any other agency, or for private people.

It has somehow been established that U.S. citizens will accept that they cannot be told about either the activities or the budget of the secret U.S. government "national security" agencies. Clearly, if they did know, and if they had a chance to vote, most citizens of the U.S. would vote against many of the activities. However, U.S. citizens are not allowed to have enough information to make an informed decision about the secret agencies. In this area, the U.S. is not a democracy.

Allowing a secret agency to do illegal things corrupts a democracy. It says to everyone, "Yes, we have laws, but we can break the laws at any time. The government is a democracy only when the people in control want a democracy."

For those who are not U.S. citizens, FBI stands for Federal Bureau of Investigation. CIA is Central Intelligence Agency. NSA is National Security Agency.

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