Epilogue Summary and Analysis

Baer feels that United States policy is that democracy will cure all of the problems. Some day the people will run the government and corruption and terrorism will end. Official Washington still supports the Saudi efforts, feeling they are fighting terrorism.

An October, 2001 poll shows that ninety-five percent of educated Saudis under the age of forty-one support bin Laden. Why does the United States think democracy will work there? Free elections would result in an Islamic fundamentalist government that would be hostile to Washington.

Baer feels it is the Saudi royals who want to keep things as they are in the country to protect their own lifestyles. The Saudi situation oppresses the population and the anger is directed at the West as a distraction away from the ruling family. The United States created this situation with its need for oil and...