Typically, when people refer to a country by name in this manner, such as “Saudi Arabia”, they are referring to the government/ruling class of that country, not the people as a whole. The Bin Laden family had demonstrable ties to the royal family of Saudi Arabia.
You forgot the part where Saudi Arabia started courting American aid and literally expelled Bin Laden for being anti-American. That doesn’t make SA “the good guys” but it makes a huge difference in how your framing paints SA’s position and involvement with Al Qaeda during the 2000s. Their history is long and complicated, but during the war on terror, SA was much more aligned with the US against Al Qaeda and Bin Laden
Typically, when people refer to a country by name in this manner, such as “Saudi Arabia”, they are referring to the government/ruling class of that country, not the people as a whole. The Bin Laden family had demonstrable ties to the royal family of Saudi Arabia.
it’s called synecdoche!
You forgot the part where Saudi Arabia started courting American aid and literally expelled Bin Laden for being anti-American. That doesn’t make SA “the good guys” but it makes a huge difference in how your framing paints SA’s position and involvement with Al Qaeda during the 2000s. Their history is long and complicated, but during the war on terror, SA was much more aligned with the US against Al Qaeda and Bin Laden
they did say “the people”