Saudi newspapers today strongly lashed out at US President George W. Bush's State of the Union
address, saying the United States was only interested in controlling the whole world.
Now it appears that the "super power is alone taking decisions to put the whole world under its mandate," Al-Riyadh said in an editorial marking the first press comments from the kingdom on Thursday's speech.
"President Bush is (behaving) arbitrarily to impose American domination on the world," the paper said and reminded Americans how Communists, Nazis, fascists and other "small dictatorships" collapsed and perished when they tried to do the same.
"America is a super empire that has imposed its behaviour, food and its jeans on the world. But it lacks the wisdom that makes it see there are differences between peoples and nations," the semi-official paper added.
"Reading again the history of how empires emerged and then perished" is what the decision-makers at the White House need to do now, the newspaper said.
Al-Watan newspaper said President Bush and other US officials have magnified the dangers of terrorism and been "beating the drums of war" as part of a "blind desire for vengeance."
It said the Americans should seek better options through "positive cooperation with their many friends and allies in the world ... unless the cartels of oil and arms manufacturers ... have become the top decision-makers in the Bush Administration."
Okaz daily said the United States appears on a collision course with a majority of the world's countries and warned of the serious consequences of such a policy.
"As friends of America we feel obliged to say that this policy will only create more enemies than friends, and (in the end) all will be losers," the paper said.
The newspapers did not specifically mention the president's threats against Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
The government has made no comment on the Bush speech, although all Saudi media reflect official thinking.
AFP