After the recent Crawford meeting between President Bush and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, it appears that the two countries have made great strides in mending frayed relations. The Saudis got some much-needed public hand-holding, and in return they agreed to take steps to lower long-term oil prices. The crown prince told a close adviser that "it wasn't a good meeting; it was a great meeting."
Lost in the blizzard of the media coverage that focused primarily on oil is the fact that the two leaders announced plans to increase the number of Saudi students studying in the U.S., expand military exchange programs that provide education to Saudi officers, and facilitate American travel to the kingdom. The president deserves credit for putting such seemingly banal issues on the bilateral agenda. Notwithstanding the price of oil, few issues are more important to American national security.
Today Saudi Arabia faces an education crisis. During our recent two-week visit to the kingdom, the need for educational reform arose repeatedly among parents, policymakers, journalists, religious clerics and business leaders. There is a grudging awareness that, at the extremes, the system produces terrorists. One former high-level government official described Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh as "a factory for terrorism."