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- Verified Buyer
Craig Unger has written a fantastic and shocking investigative piece that reads like a novel, but it's better than a novel, because this story is true. In "House of Bush, House of Saud," Unger not only explores the very close relationship between the Bush I, II and Reagan administrations to the Saudi royal family, he blows the lid off many myths regarding the war on terrorism. Most notable among his startling revelations is how the United States government largely created two monsters that would later come back to haunt us in a big way - Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.In the 1980s, during the Iran/Iraq war, the U.S. alternated funding both sides with weapons. During that war, the Reagan administration, while having the public stance of "not negotiating with terrorists," illegally sent 4,000 missiles to Iran, a violation of U.S. law, in order to free American hostages. Unger doesn't openly state it (he doesn't have to), but this is beyond contempt, considering Iran held 52 U.S. hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days from 1979-1981. I'd certainly call that negotiating with terrorists. But with this, Unger is just getting started.Our government was equally kind to Iraq during the war, supplying it with chemical and biological weapons. The Reagan administration was aware that Saddam was gassing both his own people and Iranians during the war. Publicly, we condemned the attacks, but privately, we winked at Saddam and looked the other way. Ironically, President George W. Bush cited these Saddam atrocities as a reason for going to war against Iraq in 2003 - that Saddam had used poison gas and chemical weapons against his own people. The hitch - he wasn't doing it in 2003, he was doing it in the 1980s and early 90s. And those mass graves that we are now finding? Many are from the same era, and our government knew about this genocide while it was occurring. Hey, Saddam may have been a brutal dictator in the 1980s, but he was OUR dictator, and he had the added attraction of having lots and lots of oil.Unger also explores the rise of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and how our government LAVISHLY funded the Afghan rebels during the Soviet invasion - almost certainly the right decision. But, we sold so many weapons to the Afghan rebels, they were selling an unneeded surplus to other buyers. We oversupplied the rebels. The main problem with our Afghanistan strategy was that the U.S. experts didn't anticipate what would happen if the rebels were successful, which they ultimately were. When the Soviets finally left Afghanistan, Osama, born in Saudi Arabia, needed a new enemy to fight. He was now flush with cash and weapons to fight with, the latter courtesy of the U.S.A. The United States became his perfect target, when our forces arrived in Saudi Arabia in 1991 to fight the Gulf War against Saddam. Our existence in the Saudi kingdom was and is unforgivable in the eyes of bin Laden.The book also covers in detail what's advertised - the very close, personal relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud, the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. Incredibly, the highest levels of our government allowed over 100 Saudi nationals, including many members of the bin Laden family, to leave the United States just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, when private flights were still prohibited and commercial flights were just resuming. Another Unger whopper - just months prior to 9-11, the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia rolled out a "Visa Express" program, where Saudis did not even need to appear in person to get a visa to the United States. Some of the 9-11 hijackers didn't even have to wait in line to get their U.S. visa. This program remained in effect even after 9-11!My main praise for the book - it not only explores the Bush family-House of Saud intimate relationship, as advertised, but it also offers the reader an in-depth look at the U.S. government's role in supplying Osama bin Laden and Saddam before they became our sworn enemies. Other fascinating details covered, but that you'll have to get from the book and not here: the extensive PR campaign by the Kuwaiti government prior to the start of the '91 Gulf War to sway American public opinion; an extensive look at Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.; the bin Laden family history, its rise in Saudi Arabia, and the myth that the entire family has disowned Osama; how the Saudi government, despite very generous foreign aid, provided almost no assistance in helping to apprehend terrorists following attacks against U.S. citizens/soldiers in 1995, 1996 (Khobar towers) and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole; and the right-wing, conservative myth that President Clinton turned down Sudanese offers to turn over bin Laden to the United States.Anyone wishing to gain a valuable understanding into our enemies and wars we are waging today in the name of terror should definitely read this book. Unger has a terrific writing style that flows well and is easily understood - I read the book in one day; I simply couldn't put down this compelling read. Very highly recommended.
