Showing posts with label middle east. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle east. Show all posts

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Weapons Delivery


Unforeseen Consequences
American political leaders call for military action because it seems like a decisive and strong thing to do. But restraint often takes greater resolve. Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu once wrote: “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance by clever means ...before fighting. If you know neither your enemy nor yourself, you will be defeated in every battle." By repeatedly engaging in interventions without a proper understanding of our enemy ...and without a better understanding of the consequences of our own actions (stabilizing the region ?!) ...we have weakened our nation security, not bolstered it. Terrorism perpetuates terrorism ...and right now in the eyes of the Middle East we are the terrorists. The law of unforeseen consequences does not reward recklessness.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

House of Saud

When a modern-day “monarchy” commits the worst human rights violations on the planet, can we still call it a monarchy ..? Wouldn’t autocracy or totalitarian dictatorship be more appropriate ..? Saudi Arabia’s ruling family prohibits freedom of religion, speech and press. Beheadings and other barbaric punishments are part of their corrupt system of justice. Women are not even allowed to drive a car. Meanwhile, the House of Saud runs the world’s largest oil reserves like a personal bank account, occasionally tossing out billions to fight democratic reforms in the Middle East. Even the personal wealth of Osama bin Laden, which funded terrorist operations of al-Qaeda (including 9/11) ..was acquired through this kind of largesse from the House of Saud. Are these the people we want to sell billions of dollars worth of arms to? Of course we have no choice but to ignore the gravity of this political hypocrisy. With no coherent energy policy, our only option is to pretend these tyrants are our friends.