Do the Saudis unofficially hate us?

Sure, there was Sept 11 - most of the hijackers were Saudi. Their government claims no wrong doing on their part and is distancing themselves, much like they did with Osama.

So what if they do hate us?

Why get 15 of them to die in Hollywood-worthy movie subplots when, according to Mike Moore, they've got more than $1 TRILLION in our economic system. (or was it $1 tril in banks and another $1 tril in other us economy things...?)

Couldn't they just pull their money out?

Hell, just stopping the oil flow would spank America's fat ass until it bled to death.

Why do something as namby-pamby as the Sept 11 attack? If you want us dead, go the extra mile to start with. Make the offensive maneuver count or otherwise it's pointless.

Cuba and China. They can boycott Cuba because all they produce is sugar. They can't ignore China, even though both are communist. The Saudi's have way too much cash for the GOP to do anything other than suck up to them.

it's a very behind-our-backs type thing.

world environment, economies... and the suffering that our style of Fascist Capitalism creates across the globe to make less than 200 people poses more wealth than the poorest 3,000,000,000. What goes through the mind of the victims of Globalism as they watch their children starve and see pictures of how we live... at their expense??? There is actually more money for all in solving the problems of the world than all that is being hoarded by a very very very few. we need to gather in great masses and quietly shake our finger at Bush like he was a misbehaving child.........

they send money to terrorists, we attack Iraq. They have it made.

They want like the behind the back way because that way they aren't risking anything themselves. If they withdrew their money, the U.S. might attack them. Gas prices would be high until the U.S. won the war, but there are other suppliers. Those in power are very wealthy and like living that way. They might hate America but they like their lifestyle so they have to operate secretly.

they hate us unofficially.

You can't pull $ 1 trillion out of an economy if you wanted to.

If the Saudis start selling their bonds, it would crash the bond market and by the time they got their last part out, they'd be selling 50 vents on the dollar to do it.

To sell, you need buyers, and there aren't $ 1 trillion worth of buyers waiting for them to sell -- not at today's prices anyway.

And another thing

Saudi Arabia's economy is in much worse shape than ours. In the last 20 years their per capita GDP has fallen horribly. That money they have invested in the USA is not throwaway money to them. They need it very badly.

I think one needs make a big distinction between the Saudi ruling elite and the rest of the populace. The two groups used to be much more closely aligned, but have been steadily drifting apart, particularly since the early to mid-80s.

The House of Saud is much more interested in its own wealth, comfort and stability than in any religion or ideology. There is however a significant portion of the populace which is becoming increasingly radicalized against both their own rulers and the United States, who sees to it that those friendly, tractable dictators stay in place.

Note the similiarities between the position of the Saudi royal family and the Saudi population and the position of the American ruling olgiarchy and the American population. It really is no wonder that the American ruling olgiarchy and the Saudis are such close business partners--they're both interested in their own power, comfort and wealth to the exclusion of everything else.

because of all its oil and the USA's thirst for it, but surely that doesn't mean every Saudi is stinking rich? It seems far more likely to me that the majority is probably pretty poor, you may have a sizeable middle class who don't hate America at all (they probably rather like it), and there must be a super-rich elite.

I expect the poor are virulently anti-American, after all, they've been brought up on wahhabism to distract them from the fact that their real problems are at home. The middle class, if there is one, are probably quite pro-American, whereas the elite, God only knows what they think. You'd think they ought to love America, after all, it keeps them filthy rich, but then the rich are a wierd lot. Osama is a rich Saudi, and he sets the standard on hating America. Hell, George W Bush is rich, and it often looks to me like he hates America too.

seem to care for us only if we are serving their purpose. they are a band of terrorist with official capacity. That being said , they will do ANYTHING to keep their hold on power. Educate their populace and populus of other arab nations as they see fit. Their main goal is to stifle free elections in the middle east. They will go any route to fund Hamas/IJ in order to subvert the ME peace process, which they percieve to be a direct threat on their way of life...I wouldn't be suprised if they aren't behind much of the trouble our troops are encountering presently. There is no way they will sit by Idle and let a democratic Arab state be formed that lies directly against their border....They behave exactly the way you would expect Islamofascists to behave

U.S. population and their 'leader.' My students hate Bush, not Americans.

I hate some of our "officials" too. You can tell your students I agree with them, unofficially.

Remember the 15 of 19 rule: 15 of the 19 Sept 11 hijackers were middle-class Saudis.

There are certainly a lot of Saudis out there who make no distinction between the American people and the American government.