With increasing frequency, I am beset by excruciating reminders of the world's inexorable descent into pure insanity.
Last week's news from the Middle East provides one of the most glaring examples to date.
It was reported that Saudi Arabia - purportedly one of America's closest allies in both the Middle East and the so-called War on Terror - plans to execute a woman convicted of "witchcraft" by publicly beheading her.
The woman is accused of causing a man to become impotent, among other instances of scientifically unprovable bewitchery. The basis of her conviction rests on a coerced confession that was "signed" with her fingerprints because she's illiterate.
Such flagrant miscarriages of justice are commonplace in Saudi Arabia, a land where women are subjected to unparalleled oppression and are treated more like livestock than human beings. Saudi women aren't allowed to vote, drive or even be in the company of a man who isn't a relative. When in public, they must sport traditional Islamic dress that allows only their eyes to go uncovered.
Saudi Arabia lacks a defined penal code. Legal decisions are guided instead by strict adherence to a puritanical and militant brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.
Under this rubric of "law," rape victims are subject to punishments including flogging and imprisonment. Last year alone, 156 persons were publicly beheaded. Of those, one man's crime was bringing a copy of the Quran into a restroom.
The enforcement of this fundamentalist interpretation of Islam is the job of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - sanctimonious morality police who employ tactics reminiscent of the Soviet Union's infamous secret police force, known as the KGB.
In 2002, these upstanding defenders of Saudi morality prevented schoolgirls from escaping a fire and barred firefighters from putting out the blaze because the girls lacked the proper dress to be seen in public. Fifteen died as a result.
How does the U.S. react to such blatant human rights violations? A sweetheart arms deal, of course! Last month, President Bush celebrated a $20 billion arms accord with our strongest Arab ally.
What? You were expecting the same vociferous condemnations, saber-rattling and economic sanctions routinely directed toward Iran? No, sir.
Iran is in the "axis of evil," you see. It supports terrorism worldwide, violates human rights and dreams about the annihilation of Israel. Iran shares nothing in common with Saudi Arabia.
I mean, it's not like 15 of the 19 perpetrators of Sept. 11 were Saudis. Saudi school kids aren't taught to hate the "infidel"- meaning all who aren't Muslim.
And security experts haven't said that Saudi Arabia is "active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader."
Oh, wait. All those things are true!
Why the hell are we selling them sophisticated weapons then? In a word: oil.
Saudi Arabia boasts 25 percent of the world's oil reserves. Without friendly relations, Americans would no doubt pay exponentially more at the pump. And it's not like we could use an energy revolution in this country. That would cut into the profits of American oil and motor corporations.
Thus, it's a no-brainer for our leaders to choose political expedience above national security and moral integrity again. After all, what's a little support for terrorism and a few human rights violations between friends?
Joshua Fredrickson is a political science senior. His column appears Wednesdays.
