but for our leaders to tell us Islam is great and a peaceful religion, that Saudi Arabai is our friend, Pakistan is doing everythng it can against terrorists - well this is ALL BULLSHIT!!!
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this is another issue that is more complicated than it seems.
its all about diplomacy.
these places are also fragile politically and the whackos all have AK-47's hanging over the door and nothing to shoot at. Saudi Arabia is a poor country by world standards... but the monarchy in place is better than a new Saddam Hussein. Pakistan is the same Musharrif (sp) is barely hanging on and is in a difficult situation. the choice is between him as a leader and a list certified maniacs who will get access to the Nuclear Button.
dimplomacy is not always cut and dry. Russia for example went through a difficult economic transformation led by people who today could not manage a lemonaide stand without borrowing 7 million dollars in start up capital and being bankrupt the next week. IMF, World Bank and other sources gave Russia billions over the course of the 90's. Hundreds of Billions. They did it knowing that Billions were being stolen, that they had no hope of becoming fiscally responsible anytime soon. But the alternative to chaos and Yeltsin was Zhugonov who was inches away from winning the second presidential election and turning back the clock. It is estimated that the 6 richest people in Russia at the time, spent more than $150,000,000.00 in a few months to raise Yeltsins ratings from 3% to over 50%. To take an open stance that they were just a bunch of lying thieves, raping, stealing and robbing the world blind in some of the largest pyrmid scams the world ever saw.. like GKO government bonds where they were at some points paying 100% interest on 6 months... just to raise money to pay the interest on the previous bonds would have put Zhugonov in power.
but though it could be looked at as irresponsible in retrospect, that addiction to cash through the 90's, is what also prevented communism from coming back.
I would not doubt for a second that Yeltsin did not have a few drunken conversations with his buddy Bill asking questions like "gee Billy, do you ever wonder who might end up with the Nuclear briefcase if we lose power? there could be another Cold War... or worse. What do you think Bill? Personally, i think we just need 6 Billion more dollars for that to never happen"
to abondon Musharrif in Pakistan would put some scary people in power and it would put nuclear weapons in their hands. Each criticism of him for example, weakens him in many ways politically... puts more distance between them and the West and threatens to undermine his own fragile government. So, though it may not be right to say that they are perfect allies... to do otherwise and criticize them just weakens him politically, which is not a good thing either.
We buy oil from Saudi Arabia. They are some of the bigger fucking hypocrites on earth. They too are just hanging by a thread in terms of their own political power... as are most governments in the Middle East. I dont think the world will be better off if we denounce them or break ties with them. If we feel there is problems there today.. what will there be when the Monarchy is overthrown and real bad people are running that country? what effect can it have on the region? on neighbor governments? the whole Middle East is on pretty fragile political ground.
the world works better when money is a part of the equation. money = dependence and thus, influence. thats part of politics. Honesty however is not. North Korea agreed not to make nuclear weapons. why? because they were offered oil imports, food aid etc. We could also correctly say that his government is just a financially and idealogically bankrupt bunch of power hungry dickheads trying to black mail the world out of desperation.... but that would not take us closer to getting them to stop making nuclear war heads.
i think we should do anything and everything that is in our best interest. thats how Darwin would have wanted it. Frequently, it will include lying and stealing and shooting dictators in the head from 1500 yards out, while they are eating dinner with their family. Thats just life.
most people who assume the morally high ground in conflicts end up dead.... shot in the face while holding a flower in their hand.
