Unrealist realism

In his World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security , Thomas Farr describes the failures of the Bush administration to press for religious freedom in Saudi Arabia: “As the second Bush term neared its end, it seemed clear to administration supporters and critics alike that the United States could not afford to rile the Saudis at a time when their support would almost surely be needed to calm the confessional hatreds in Iraq and its neighboring states. In one of the worst-case scenarios, Saudi support would be critical if the Middle East were to erupt in a regional Shiite-Sunni religious war.” Oh, and there’s oil in Saudi Arabia too.

Farr thinks this not only unjust to religious minorities in Saudia Arabia (he estimates there are 500,000-1 million Catholics, mostly Filipino servants and other South Asians; almost no priests). He thinks it shows that the Bush administration didn’t learn the lesson of 9/11: “The birthplace of Islam, of Wahhabism, and its stepchild Bin Ladenism was left to evolve on its own. Although there were a few hopeful signs of political and theological movement in the desert kingdom, there was among American officials no sense of urgency about encouraging that movement. The belief that U.S. support for despots in the Middle East had helped spawn Islamist transnational terrorism, and that the long-term antidote was stable self-government, was swamped by the season of ‘realism’ that once against descended on American foreign policy.”