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Originally Posted by TriMT7
Have you no knowledge of history?
Even going back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire (read up on how meddlesome THOSE GUYS were, btw... up until just a couple hundred years ago they couldn't get enough European sex slaves, European territory or little boys from Europe to serve as tribute).... it was powerful families such as the Sauds, etc. that worked with the UN/Britain to carve up the Middle East after WW1. Everyone lays the blame for that at the feet of the "west," perpetually infantilizing anyone who isn't European as helpless and hapless victims when that is not true at all!
Next, Saudi Arabis is basically THE #1 primo exporter of Wahabbist extremist version of Islam around the world. With their vast resources they evangelize better than anyone. It's as if the Christian Puritans would have had their way and power. THAT'S the brand of Islam that is on the rise.
Not to mention, so much "US meddling" in the Middle East is done for the benefit and comfort of Saudi Arabia. Much of our opposition towards Iran is shared with Saudi, who consider them enemies. Our involvement in Gulf War 1 was to protect the business interests of Saudi and Kuwaiti billionaires as much as American ones.
One of three reasons Bin Laden "struck" the US was "American presence in Saudi Arabia"... conveniently forgetting that the Saudis literally invited us in.
(And by the way, even in Iran, that country could be a powerhouse of enlightenment and culture in 2015 if they'd actually kept the damn Shah in power! But idiot "religious students" had to swap one dictator for an even worse one. In the name of Allah).
So yeah... Saudi Arabia needs to step it up and help their Muslim brothers. The "West" and its voracious oil appetite is the only reason why the Middle East has any semblance of an economy anyway. That religion and region isn't exactly known for having dynamic cultures that innovate and produce. And if Europe doesn't get its crap together and remember what their true values are, that'll be their future too in no time.
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I actually agree with a good bit of what you're saying. But you're far off base on a few points.
Saying that the Iranians should've kept the Shah is asinine. The Shah was an imposition. If you don't wanna live under an imposed leader, why would you expect someone else to like living that way?
Iran could've been a powerhouse of enlightenment
had we not interfered in their internal affairs on behalf of Britain oil interests and replaced an elected leader with a brutal monarch. Don't leave out the U.S. role in Iran's present turmoil.
On Bin Laden...OF COURSE he knew that we were invited into Saudi Arabia. He didn't conveniently forget anything. But just because we were invited, didn't preclude us from rejecting the invitation. But of course, the United States can never seem to turn down a chance for further hegemony in some part of the world where we don't belong. We should've never put troops on Saudi soil. We knew it then and did it anyway. Bad decision. Thousands of Americans had to pay the price for it.
But to the immigration issue, the Saudis would be nuts to take in thousands of secular Muslim Syrians...people that could destabilize the Saudi regime. I wouldn't take them either if i were the Saudis. They didn't create the Syrian problem and have no obligation to fix the situation just because they're all Muslims.
Rwanda is nominally a Christian nation. Should we have taken in hundreds of thousands of Tutsis just because the United States is nominally Christian too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TriMT7
With friends like the Saudis, who needs enemies?
I'd actually vote for ANY candidate that ran on a platform of disengagement from the Middle East.
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You can buy all the oil you want from the Saudis without being their friends. We WANT to be their friend...they aren't forcing friendship on us.
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