Editor:
Luke Hinz seems very judgemental of a regime that has been very successful for the past couple of hundred years (“Saudi Arabia can’t be trusted,” Sept. 4). I have lived here in Saudi Arabia for the past 30 years, and the system works pretty well on a day-to-day basis. Yes, there are problems, and women are currently fighting for their freedom, but you won’t see the major issues that plague us in the West — that of major drug abuse and gun shooting and rampant crime. Our way of life in the West won’t work here.
We aren’t “giving” arms to the Saudis, we are selling them. It’s all about big business. I hope that they never need to use those new weapons that we are so readily arming them with.
As for your comments about it being more dangerous than 10 or 20 years ago, I agree. But, where in the world is it safer now to live than it was two decades ago?
Mariam MacHenreyJeddah, Saudi Arabia