European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Winds of change in saudi Arabia will King fahd support social and political changes in the aftermath of events buffeting saudi Arabia by Mort Rosenblum associated press n o longer sheltered from the world by its Check Book and rigid codes saudi Arabia is wielding Power in the Gulf Region building its defences and rethinking its Basic tenets. A whatever happens with Iraq knowledgeable saudis say there will be change. In a conservative kingdom a without revolutionaries however most predict a supercharged evolution at Best. A. A there is bound to be change economically. Politically socially Quot said a prominent Liddah. Businessman with outside pics Uio it could take two or three years. Without maybe five.1�?T a. He said he expected finer expression and More criticism in the press there might be pressure groups such of professional associations. In the meantime Fie added he did not want to named. Barring an uprising change depends Only on King a fahd and Accord among the nearly 5,000 members of the Al Saud family. Saudi Arabia is a private company with Little pressure to go Public. A a the Shock of the crisis will make us think about ourselves a a said an influential Prince who also asked for anonymity. A i think we have too much Power. We need checks and he said the crisis has opened the society somewhat As. Hundreds of foreign reporters probe matters strictly private. Substantial change is coming he added but at saudi Pace. A. Since the Early 1970s, saudi rulers have kept the outside world beyond the horizon avoiding political entanglements and buying Security with generous Grants to Arab states and the Palestine liberation organization. They spent heavily on sophisticated weaponry and hired Western defense technicians ,. Visas were granted sparingly and Only with a purpose a for consultants salesmen managers labourers. Moslem pilgrims were welcomed to Mecca and Medina but then sent Home again. ,. A after fundamentalist saudis seized the holy mosque at Mecca in 1979 and were dislodged Only after Days of bloody fighting the kingdom ref rated farther into strict islamic conservatism. Secure in a microcosm of its own design saudi Arabia lavished hundreds of billions of dollars on gleaming new cities storybook palaces Industrial complexes and luxuries unequalled in the world a when Saddam Hussein took Kuwait and headed toward us we called the army and found no one there a said one saudi official. A we realized we had better do something Western defense contractors said they expect saudi Arabia to triple its armed forces quickly adding conventional land weapons to support its High tech air Force Quot. A a a already saudi Arabia is using new muscle in the a a a when Yemen objected to Western troops in the area the saudis withdrew special status for nearly. A 2 million yemenis in the kingdom. Perhaps As Many As ,. 750,000 went Home within a month. A similarly Saucki Arabia abruptly halted Aid to Jordan and then Cut off its Oil Supply. ���.��. A a we Learned who our real friends were Quot said Prince Abdullah Faisal Secretary general of the Royal commission for Jubal and Yanbul and a widely respected Young saudi. A a a a a ,. Many saudis expect the to be on the society itself caught Between a strict Reading of the 1,400-year-old Koran latest texts of the Harvard business school. A. A an English language television network offers american sitcoms but Roseanne has a prayer Blank out words that might offend such As underwear jews and Beer. In one a the old line a hum a few bars of it Quot and the word a bars Quot came out. It. Liquor is banned and Selling it is a felony but favorite brands Are available on the Black Market with an extra Zero behind their Normal Price. Faced with a threat saudi Arabia realized How much it depended on its 4 million asian african and Western workers. A third of its nurses went Home within Days of. Iraq s invasion of Kuwait. A Quot saudi be Kinder and a filipino business executive. Quot but also its people will Start to question things not take them at. Face value Quot a Quot saudis echoed this theme. A. Quot we must be Strong because we Are Strong not. Because we have the Money to be Strong Quot said Nihal Al Omari a Riyadh crisis opened us up to a new reality Quot said. Mohammed Ishri of the Liddah chamber of Commerce. A we want to be a nation that the West respects that can dirty its hands do the work and not have to Call a sri. Lankan to fix the he added a proviso heard widely among saudis foreign diplomats and Western residents with Long experience in the kingdom a there will be change but at our Pace. The Shah modernized Iran so fast that people got lost. Now they have to go Back when the United states began dispatching thousands of troops to the Region Many saudis expected reverberations from such heresies As pistol packing women wearing trousers and driving a abut most found a greater effect from nearly 200,000 kuwaitis seeking Refuge from an emirate where men voted and women went unveiled. A a a a a a live never seen an american but i be e kuwaitis Quot said a an executive of a Bank Branch reserved for women. Quot they. Tell their leaders what they think. This is a Good she said she was shocked after the invasion of Kuwait when some members of the saudi Royal family sought shelter at a Palace in Liddah protected by a private army. A it was Only for them not for us Quot she said. A after that things become . A. No serious opposition challenges the Al Saud family. Not Only because of strict censorship and rigorous a a measures Agama dissidents but also because saudi. Arabia offers a comfortable life. ,. Quot you done to get Many bomb throwers Here Quot a senior Western Diplomat said. A a it a not that kind of the last time saudi Arabia faced a major threat when egyptian Leader Gamal Abdel Nasser sent troops to Yemen an moved North in the Early 1960s, president. Kennedy sent help but also demanded reforms. As a result saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962 and introduced education for women Athis time . Officials said privately such pressure is not Likely. C ,. How the kingdom evolves depends largely on events saudi and foreign analysts say. Investment has stalled. And billions of dollars have been transferred elsewhere. At the same time Oil production Rose toward 8 million barrels a Day at Windfall prices. A under most scenarios the Economy is unlikely to change drastically. More in doubt the analysts say is How King fahd and his Brothers will react to the political and. Social lessons. Quot ,. already is stiff religious resistance to . Troops called Quot the children of satan Quot by some guarding holy soil. Quot a lasting american presence would drastically change the Way of life Here Quot said Thierry Mauger a French author and Veteran saudi observer. The most Radical proposals suggest an elected. Consultative Assembly the on Kuwait had before it was suspended under emergency conditions in 1986. King fahd has hinted of a consultative body and Chambers were built in Riyadh for that purpose but nothing has materialized. A leading Liddah journalist said the Royal family will provoke serious discontent if it does not allow greater press Freedom lobby groups and other Means of airing. Public opinion. Major change is inevitable there is about that observed an intellectual who also directs a major saudi company Quot if. The rulers Are smart they will stay ahead of a a. Page 16 a the stars and stripes saturday january 12, 1991 o sgt. Joe Maple of Fisher iii., checks for foreign object damage on a twin Turbo fan f-15 Eagle fighter at a base in saudi Arabia. Lethal Arsenal a by Robert Burns associated press. I f it comes to War the United states is counting on its Arsenal of modern weapons to offset the iraqi army s defensive and numerical advantage. The . Air sea and land forces arrayed against Iraq and its occupying army in Kuwait Are armed with some of the world s most sophisticated firepower. But the . Arsenal in the Gulf also holds weapons that Are nearly a Hal Century old. A. A i. A. More than 360,000 . Soldiers sailors airmen and marines have been deployed to the Gulf area and 70,000 More Are due there by the end of january in addition some 245,000 troops from two dozen Allied nations Are backing the . Force against a 540,000-Man iraqi army the possibility that these forces will engage in combat loomed larger in the aftermath of Secretary of state James. A. Baker ill s failed talks with iraqi foreign minister tank Aziz in Geneva. A. A a a while Baker said the White House had not made a final decision on use of Force he made it Clear the administration stood by the . Resolution that authorized Force to remove iraqi troops from Kuwait after Jan. 15. Should War begin the . Troops assigned to operation desert shield will put to the test a wide array of High tech weapons including missiles tanks and aircraft. Among these weapons Are the army s Patriot ground launched missiles to Knock Down enemy aircraft the air Force s f-16 fighting Falcon Jet fighters and the Navy so standoff land attack missile that can be fired outside enemy anti aircraft Range. A although these advanced weapons have never been used in combat they would offset Iraq s formidable troop strength and advantage in holding defensive positions military planners believe. X. poised for combat duty in the Gulf Are some of the. Oldest items in the . Arsenal these include the Navy a oldest aircraft Carrier the Midway which was commissioned in 1947, and the battleship Missouri or it whose deck in 1945 the japanese signed of the articles of surrender ending world War ii. The Missouri and the Wisconsin Are the Only a two battleships remaining in the Active Navy Fleet. Quot despite the battleships advanced age and the even older origins of that technology the Missouri and the Wisconsin have a potent Long Range threat Quot said a Navy spokesman it. David Wray. A the Power of the 16-Inch guns. Is such guns have a Range of More than 20 Miles. V a a a. A a. A a another remnant of wars past is the a-6 intruder attack plane. Dozens of these planes which came into service in 1965, Are deployed aboard the three us aircraft carriers in. The Middle East and the three due to arrive there shortly. The intruder was a Workhorse during the Vietnam War and it was used during the 1986 . Bombing raid on Libya. The Navy now has one aircraft Carrier Battle group in the Northern arabian sea one in the red sea Andyne in the Eastern Mediterranean. Three others Are due to arrive soon As reinforcements. Each Carrier has .70 to 80 aircraft on Board including about 20 Fa-18 Hornet strike fighters 20 fun 4 tomcats to defend the Battle group and a variety of other aircraft such As reconnaissance and anti submarine warfare planes. Besides the six carriers committed to desert shield the Navy has Only five others capable of use in the Middle East. Four others in the. Active Fleet could not be used because they Are undergoing overhaul or refuelling of their nuclear reactors tie Navy has about 35,000 sailors about shifts in the Gulf area. A a. In War . Ships probably would be used to Solton up iraqi defences along the Gulf const in Advance of a Landing by the marines Tio have two amphibious assault groups in the Gulf a. ,���.��?z� a a ,. The mannes can come ashore with m-60 tanks a amphibious vehicles infantry fighting vehicles and attack helicopters already based on Shore in saudi Arabia just South of the kuwaiti Border Are members of the 1 St Marine expeditionary Force which includes two tank battalions two infantry regiments an artillery regiment a Light armoured. Infantry battalion and a combat Engineer battalion. Also ashore is the 3rd Marine aircraft Wing with Fa-10s, av-8b harrier jump jets ch-53 super stallion transport helicopters and ah-1. Apache attack helicopters. About 55,000 marines Are now in the guff area and their number is expected to Rise to about 80,000 within weeks the army has by far the largest contingent in the Gulf. At least 200,000 soldiers already Are there and tons of thousands More Are due soon from the United states and bases in Germany. A a a the heart of the ground forces Are armoured and mechanized units. The army also has about 1,300 main Battle tanks in saudi Arabia or in route. Among the air Force warplanes deployed in the Gulf Are two squadrons of f-117a stealth fighter bombers first used in the december 1989 invasion of Panama at least 38 f-111 fighter bombers at an air Southern. Turkey and several dozen a-10 warthog anti tank. Air planes ,. About 40,000 air Force personnel Are in the Gulf area and More Are heading there. A a m a a a a a m a a a a a a not since the naked and the dead has the american Soldier been portrayed so a Jack Higgins author of the Eagle has landed i t i n m k $ a Fri \ w amp 8 g # in d y every War inspires one or two exceptional novels the kind of Peerless fiction that exactly captures the truth and essence of that particular time and place. Michael Peterson s a time of War is the novel about Vietnam that everyone should read. Peterson a former Marine lieutenant who served with distinction in Vietnam 1967-71is. A a a a. 9 if a a a a a a a s v a a a a it f a a a t. A to autograph copies of his Best Selling Book and discuss his own time in combat. A time of War is a stars and stripes top 10 paperback for january and is discounted 10% from cover Price. Peterson on the Doz in 1963 of f f saturday january 12, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 17
