Saudi Arabia is the home of Islamic extremism and one of the most repressive and backwards societies in the world. Is it time to re-evaluate our friendship with them?
Happens to be and "is" are entirely different matters. It's like saying Germany is the home of anti-Semites. Yes, Hitler and group did some bad stuff but would their actions justify the classification of all Germans as anti-Semites? Same thing applies to Saudi Arabia. Though rumor has it that the Saudi Arabian government funds terrorists the allegation is false. Nonetheless, there's no denying the fact that some wealthy Saudi Arabians actually fund terrorism. But so does the Israeli government, the Iranian government, the U.S government. The Saudis therefore are in good company.
Saudi Arabia are going out of their way to deny any links with ISIS at all. Of course, Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam but calling the country "the home of Islamic extremism" seems a little sensationalist.
Saudi is a good American ally, so they can stone women and homosexuals so American turns a blind eye to it. Iran relatively speaking is a democracy compared to Saudi. Only men have rights in Saudi and women are not allowed to drive cars, if they get raped while driving a car it is their fault. Pragmatism always wins over morality when it comes to politics. As long as Saudi toes the line, USA will back them.
Yes, it is well past time to play a little Real Politik with the Saudis. While no one wants to see the boat unnecessarily rocked, it is time for the kingdom to stop screwing around with the extremists and join the the civilized world. And as our own country is edging toward better domestic and friendly energy sources, the less leverage their crew has.
The time to reevaluate our relations with Saudi Arabia should have happened decades ago, preferably in the late 1970s. The situation is too intense now with Iraq being in shambles due to the US Led invasion of 2003, which brings us to a complicated situation with no clear solution in sight. My guess is America's relation with Saudi Arabia has a lot to do with money and it's too costly to cut ties as of right now. It would be admirable if American government did step away from this country but the current climate is too dangerous and divisive to even consider.
Saudi has become very ruthless in some of their ways, I do believe that it is time to stand up to them.
I'd love to cut ties with ALL the middle eastern countries except for Israel. They are the only nation that isn't run by a bunch of nutjobs. Do we carry a lot of the blame for what has happened over in the middle east? We sure do. I read a really interesting article a while back and it talked about how Nixon (and I imagine some business cronies) sensed that the middle east was the next "big thing" because of all their oil reserves and he also sensed that the Sauds were easily corruptible so basically he made a deal with the devil because of oil and the petro dollar and we've been paying BIG TIME for that mistake ever since. Think about it. In your own personal life, would you ever make a deal with someone that you sensed was dishonest? Would you expect the deal to go well over time? Of course not! If you had any brains, you would run from making a deal with a dishonest person and you would wait until you found a reputable person before you signed on the dotted line. Our nation would be MUCH farther ahead if our leadership would listen to their moral compass and some good old fashioned common sense. All this "wheeling and dealing" and ignoring terrible atrocities for the sake of power, money and/or oil is crushing us and making a HUGE mess. I don't hold out much hope anymore. Come heck or high water, Barack is going to make sure that Iran gets their nuclear arsenal. When that happens, we can expect WWIII to start. If it starts while on BO's watch, we don't stand a chance. He will allow us to get nuked and he will wave the white flag of surrender. If we can hold off until the next presidency, we might stand a chance of surviving intact as the America we all know. I guess we'll find out in the next couple of years.... P.S. Don't forget to buy some iodine pills for your thyroid. I think we're going to need them sooner or later!
Israel isn't much better than the Arab nations that want them [Israelis] all dead. In any case I think the ME shouldn't be anyone's concern. Israel needs no allies. They've survived thousands of years surrounded by enemies as they are now. But getting back to the question about our dealings with Saudi Arabia . . . . . . were it not for the fact that some powerful people [call them the shadow government if you please] directly benefit from Saudi oil, how the U.S government dealt with them [the Saudi's] would be very different. And while there's still money to mine from Saudi Arabia either directly or indirectly, the U.S government [views] on Saudi Arabia, and [its] foreign policies will be favorable.
When dealing with such people, you need to work from strength and be tough, and Obama is a pussy on foreign policy. The Saudis were all dirt poor before we came in and starting pulling the oil out of the ground - and when their oil runs out, they'll be poor again.
