The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

Arabia a wide berth, and though the coastal fishing and trading towns had known
prosperity for millennia, the nomadic people of the interior had lived a stark
existence, held together only by their Islamic faith, which was in turn anchored
by the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Two things had changed that. The British
in the First World War had used this area as a diversion against Ottoman Turkey,
drawing their forces here and away from sites which might have been of greater
utility to their allies in Germany and Austria-Hungary. Then in the 1930s, oil
had been discovered. Oil in quantities so vast as to make Texas an apostrophe.
With that, first the Arab world had changed, and then the whole world had soon
followed.
From the first, the relationship between the Saudis and the West had been
delicate. The Saudis were still a curious mixture of the primitive and the
sophisticated. Some people on this peninsula were but a single generation from
nomadic life that was little different from that of the wanderers of the Bronze
Age. At the same time, there was an admirable tradition of Koranic scholarship,
a code that was harsh but scrupulously fair, and remarkably similar to the
Talmudic traditions of Judaism. In a brief span of time these people had become
accustomed to wealth beyond count or meaning. Viewed as comic wastrels by the
'sophisticated' West, they were merely the newest entry in a long line of
nouveau riche nations of which America had been a recent part. A nouveau riche
himself, Ryan smiled at some of the buildings in sympathy. People with 'old'
money – earned by bumptious ancestors whose rough manners had long since been
conveniently forgotten – were always uncomfortable around those who had made,
not inherited, their comforts. As it was with individuals, so it was with
nations. The Saudis and their Arab brethren were still learning how to be a
nation, much less a rich and influential one, but the process was an exciting
one for them and their friends. They'd had some easy lessons, and some very hard
ones, most recently with their neighbors of the north. For the most part they
had learned well, and now Ryan hoped that the next step would be as easily made.
A nation achieves greatness by helping others to make peace, not by
demonstrating prowess at war or commerce. To learn that, it had taken America
from the time of Washington to the time of Theodore Roosevelt, whose Nobel Peace
Prize adorned the room in the White House that still bore his name. It took us
almost a hundred twenty years, Jack thought, as the car turned and slowed. Teddy
got the Prize for arbitrating some little piss-ant border dispute, and we're
asking these folks to help us settle the most dangerous flashpoint in the
civilized world after merely fifty years of effective nationhood. What reason do
we have to look down on these people?
There is a choreography to occasions of state as delicate and as adamant as any
ballet. The car – it used to be a carriage – arrives. The door is opened by a
functionary – who used to be called a footman. The Official waits in dignified
solitude while the Visitor alights from the car. The Visitor nods to the footman
if he's polite, and Ryan was. Another, more senior, functionary first greets the
Visitor, then conducts him to the Official. On both sides of the entryway are
the official guards, who were in this case uniformed, armed soldiers.
Photographers had been left out, for obvious reasons. Such affairs would be more
comfortable in temperatures under a hundred degrees, but at least here there was