Saudi teens speak out

John Lemon is a regular family man with a not-so-regular job. Far from his home in Midway, Utah, he is in Saudi Arabia teaching English.

Lemon -- along with three other teachers from Ireland, Australia and Britain -- teach a sort of AP English class to get the kids ready for a university. To be in the program, they have to be the best students in the school. Lemon's students are the sons of some of the most prominent men in Saudi Arabia. For example, Faisal Al-Rasheed's father is the minister of education, and Sultan Al-Benyan's dad is a general in the Saudi army.

Pulse reporters came up with some questions for Lemon's students. (At least one of his students was extremely worried about his reply, fearing he'd been too outspoken. Lemon reassured his students that, in the United States anyway, it doesn't matter if the teacher agrees with the students and that nothing bad would happen to them as a result of expressing their opinions.)

We then asked the same questions of a pair of Utah sophomores attending Copper Hills High School.

Here's what we learned:

1: What do you think of the United States?

Faisal Al-Rasheed and Sultan Al-Benyan: "As a government, we don't think they treat people of other countries the way they should."

Talal Al-Kadi: "I think it is a great country and tourist attraction."

Hazem Al-Nahed: "The people of the U.S.A. are not responsible for the racist government's actions. I think that the people are innocent and do not deserve to be generalized. I can sum it up in six words: Bush is evil, not his people."

Peter Christiansen and Cameron White: "It's a great nation, beautiful and strong. It is fair and just for all citizens."

2: Were you affected by the invasion of Iraq?

Al-Rasheed and Al-Benyan: "Not physically, but emotionally we were wounded."

Al-Kadi: "A little, because when I go to America I feel less safe."

Al-Nahed: "It didn't affect me that much, but it did make me feel that other countries think I live in a giant gas station."

Christiansen and White: "Our lives here have changed a little. We have become more patriotic and more aware of the military's struggle."

3:Do you think the United States was justified in invading Iraq?

Al-Rasheed and Al-Benyan: "No, because the reason, biological weapons, were not found."

Al-Kadi: "No, I think it was wrong."

Al-Nahed: "It was not justified for the U.S.A. to invade. There is one reason that was crystal clear: Oil, oil oil!"

Christiansen and White: "This country, being the great nation it is, has a civil duty to purge the earth of the evil that was in Iraq. Terrorists cannot and should not survive anywhere."

4:Do you feel any safer now than you did a few years ago?

Al-Rasheed and Al-Benyan: "We never felt unsafe because our government is trying its best to fight terrorism attacks."

Al-Kadi: "I feel less safe."

Al-Nahed: "I feel the same as I always did, but I feel like I'm being watched at every turn."

Christiansen and White: "Very secure, probably more secure than ever with all the new security."

5:What are your goals?

Al-Rasheed: "I plan to get my master's and Ph.D. and find a good job."

Al-Benyan: "Attend an Ivy League university, then get a high-paid job and live with my wife and kids."

Al-Kadi: "To finish high school with good grades and finish college and be an architect."

Al-Nahed: "I want to study archaeology in an American university and succeed in life."

Christiansen: "Graduate from high school and go on a mission for my (LDS) church, and then go to college."

White: "Graduate, go on a mission, go to college, get married and become a self-made millionaire."

Cindy Washburn is a junior at Copper Hills High School. John Lemon is her uncle. If you are a Utah high school student and have a question you would like to see answered in this space, please send an e-mail to pulse@desnews.com or write to the Deseret Morning News, attention: Susan Whitney.

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