In an apparent bid to avoid the sort of uprisings that have been transforming the Arab world, Saudia Arabia's King Abdullah on Wednesday promised his subjects roughly $37 billion in housing, education, social security, and other benefits. Though Saudi Arabia has so far been largely free of insurrection, the royal family is reportedly nervous that protests in the neighboring Bahrain could spill into their country. Hundreds of people have backed a Facebook campaign for a Saudi "day of rage" in March. Will the king's largesse be enough to buy peace?
Can Saudi Arabia buy its way out of revolution? - The Week
Oh, no!
Not again!!!
The last time this situation came up, and the tried buying peace...well, remember this:
1. During the 1953 through 1969, Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson pressured the Shah to engage in various reforms based on their fear of a popular uprising, as predicted by the CIA as just around the corner! In mid-1958, Tomorrow will be a revolution!
a. Due to the American pressure, the Shah launched a series of reforms, known as the White Revolution, in 1963. This included many American ideas for modernization, such as a) land reform, b) modernization of infrastructure including railroads, c) education, d) enfranchising women, e) urbanization, f) encouragement of a class of technocrats and competent bureaucrats, etc. tried (unsuccessfully) to enable Irans religious minoritiesprincipally Bahais, Jews, and Christiansto take the oath of office on a holy book of their own choosing.
b. The conservative clergy viewed the White Revolution as an affront to Islam and a dangerous move toward Western modernity: Ayatollah Khomeini immediately denounced the proposed reforms, led the clerical opposition.
c. Strangely, the success of the White Revolution lead to new social tensions that helped create many of the problems the Shah had been trying to avoid. It produced a middle class, economically privileged, that formed the insurgents who demanded political reform later just what the Shah had hoped to avoid.
From "The Shah," by Dr. Abbas Milani is he Director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University.
Is Abdullah giving them what they want?
Can Saudi Arabia buy its way out of revolution? - The Week
Oh, no!
Not again!!!
The last time this situation came up, and the tried buying peace...well, remember this:
1. During the 1953 through 1969, Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson pressured the Shah to engage in various reforms based on their fear of a popular uprising, as predicted by the CIA as just around the corner! In mid-1958, Tomorrow will be a revolution!
a. Due to the American pressure, the Shah launched a series of reforms, known as the White Revolution, in 1963. This included many American ideas for modernization, such as a) land reform, b) modernization of infrastructure including railroads, c) education, d) enfranchising women, e) urbanization, f) encouragement of a class of technocrats and competent bureaucrats, etc. tried (unsuccessfully) to enable Irans religious minoritiesprincipally Bahais, Jews, and Christiansto take the oath of office on a holy book of their own choosing.
b. The conservative clergy viewed the White Revolution as an affront to Islam and a dangerous move toward Western modernity: Ayatollah Khomeini immediately denounced the proposed reforms, led the clerical opposition.
c. Strangely, the success of the White Revolution lead to new social tensions that helped create many of the problems the Shah had been trying to avoid. It produced a middle class, economically privileged, that formed the insurgents who demanded political reform later just what the Shah had hoped to avoid.
From "The Shah," by Dr. Abbas Milani is he Director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University.
Is Abdullah giving them what they want?