A Dead terrorist, simplistic notions and a '3'

Another reason we haven't invaded Saudi Arabia and won't anytime soon. From Reuters:

Saudi Arabia's security forces killed a most-wanted al Qaeda leader in a clash in the capital Riyadh early on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said. Moroccan national Younis Mohammad Ibrahim al-Hayyari, accused of involvement in a series of recent attacks in the world's biggest oil exporter, died after exchanging fire and hurling hand grenades at police, it said. Hayyari's name was at the top of a list of 36 al Qaeda suspects announced by Riyadh last week. The ministry said he had helped prepare explosives and had played a part in several attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia.

Ever since AQ made the mistake of initiating attacks against the House of Saud in 2003, the Kingdom has gotten more serious about finding AQ terrorists within it's borders. With success.

While it may be less than what we as Americans might want, progress is progress. Once the Islamists targeted Saudi wealth and the ability to hold it, the Kingdom awoke to the reality of their situation; they walk a fine line--one that in my opinion they cannot walk indefinitely--between extremism (SA is both the birthplace of Wahabbism and the boiling point for it's spillover into other Muslim nations) and pragmatism.

Much as they must try to pacify the population with quiet support and/or indifference to the madrassas, so must they deal with the threats to their own existence. While they do so, they are an ally worth having in the WOT.

Could they do more? Could they be a "better" ally? Yes, to both.

In research we often use sliding scales to measure someone's position vis-a-vis a product, service or idea. It essentially asks a respondent to indicate their relative position using a numeric scale that you provide (say a scale of 1-10, 1 being 'Poor', 10 being 'Excellent' for example). This is especially useful when following up with your subjects to measure changes from year-to-year or whatever time frame you are tracking.

Even if the Saudi's are currently only a '3' in terms of their efforts at fighting terrorism, it is still progress. Assuming of course that you believe, as I do, that as of 9/10/2001 they were rated a'1'.