General Discussion

Nichevo11

(67 posts)

3. I think a problem with "stop arming dictators"

Sat Mar 26, 2016, 08:22 AM

Mar 2016

is that we have allegiances with those dictators.

For example, with the despicable House of Saud. Which fears and hates the Iranian government. So if we smile toward Iran (as Obama recently did, with the treaty) and don't immediately reassure KSA that they are still our BFF's, the Saudi leaders get nervous and angry. What they do when nervous and angry is fund more Sunni Islamist militias, to beat back the Shiite threat.

A smile towards Iran sounded nice in theory, but it destabilized the status quo, which is a dangerous thing. Time will tell how kSA reacts. Right now they are reacting by bombing hell out of the Yemeni shiites.

Not that the status quo is any damn good. But destabilizing it, generally doesn't work out.

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What should the US policy be re: intervention in the ME? [View all] Nichevo11 Mar 2016 OP

Welllll EdwardBernays Mar 2016 #1

I think a problem with "stop arming dictators" Nichevo11 Mar 2016 #3

Sure sure EdwardBernays Mar 2016 #5

War does not fix things, it breaks them. bemildred Mar 2016 #2

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #6

Afghanistan has been at war for decades, you are making my point. bemildred Mar 2016 #11

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #14

Right, we should do nothing, We should butt out, or work incrementally. bemildred Mar 2016 #15

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #22

Much more importantly to the Bushes than blowing up ancient & magnificent Buddhas or anything else Kip Humphrey Mar 2016 #26

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #27

The Google is your friend... Kip Humphrey Mar 2016 #29

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #33

No, you walk forward with me in time to today. bemildred Mar 2016 #38

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #40

You can't "stay out of" a place you have been since WWII. GreatGazoo Mar 2016 #4

War Is A Criminal Enterprise Meteor Man Mar 2016 #7

Dammit! Meteor Man Mar 2016 #9

We should leave those poor people alone. Scuba Mar 2016 #8

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #10

yeah, we wildly flounder from "they're just mini-Americans!" to "foreign fiends!" very fast MisterP Mar 2016 #16

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #17

the problem is we're almost incapable of treating any of these factions as real entities MisterP Mar 2016 #18

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #20

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #39

well clearly one opium-fuelled group of mercs was clearly different from the other opium- MisterP Mar 2016 #41

What we've been doing... TipTok Mar 2016 #12

Deftly applying that touch at just the right moment requires a good deal of waiting at times. bemildred Mar 2016 #13

It takes a lot of preparatory work... TipTok Mar 2016 #21

Yes. bemildred Mar 2016 #36

How about we just quit deliberately stirring the shit so we can KentuckyWoman Mar 2016 #19

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #23

Agree with you except the 500 years to evolve. Their society jwirr Mar 2016 #24

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #25

I will hold out hope also because these wars since God only jwirr Mar 2016 #30

Allow me to quote the Republican deficit-hawks... Bigmack Mar 2016 #28

We need to quit supporting Saudi Arabia. Odin2005 Mar 2016 #31

Message auto-removed Name removed Mar 2016 #34

Very complicated -- and it does seem that there have never been good options karynnj Mar 2016 #32

We need to stay out of that mess liberalfromaustin21 Mar 2016 #35

Our "help" usually has the same effect as throwing kerosene on fire. Tierra_y_Libertad Mar 2016 #37

I think the best thing we could have done after September 11th was to just step away from the ME Victor_c3 Mar 2016 #42

Fix what we broke by nationalizing the treasonous oil company's assets, Mc Mike Mar 2016 #43