RE: Saudi journalist killed and hacked inside Saudi embassy in Istanbul
October 24, 2018 at 7:38 am
(This post was last modified: October 24, 2018 at 7:44 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(October 24, 2018 at 7:08 am)AtlasS33 Wrote:Both presidents have (had) personal interests, but that's not an exclusive state of affairs. The US as an institution has a compelling interest in a politically stable partner in the region. One is left to wonder how..in the event that some viable alternative to the current regime emerges....the personal interests of actors in government will play out against the crushing weight of our institutional necessities.......but regardless of how that plays out.........we can recognize that the private interests of a citizen taking precedence over the national interest in foreign affairs is not an example of our system working as intended.
(October 24, 2018 at 6:21 am)Khemikal Wrote: We consistently pursue our own interests. The things people do without the knowledge or approval of washington are not our foreign policy. Even in that short list of politically unstable relationships the value of the saudi regime becomes apparent.
They don't have to be decent people to be useful, and short of regime change or revolution, they're the people in a position to cut deals.
Everybody thought that until Trump came, to remind us that "George Bush" and Trump are examples of presidents who saw their own personal interest, so many before them did the same.
How many politicians in the White House are like that?
We're not really there with suadi arabia. At present, private and public interest are at least adjacent, if not equivalent. That may be, especially from your pov, a terrible state of affairs - but it is the state of affairs until something changes. The house of saud is a legitimate political entity and has been since the 1700s (they're older than we are, lol). Trump had nothing to do with that, nor did bush. Each president has been (and will continue to be) forced to cut deals with whomever is in charge in a given region.
The People need to rise up...but...I'd actually suggest that your idea of what The People want might be idiosyncratic. You may not approve of the regimes mo...but our experience in the middle east has taught us that toppled authorities are replaced with the same flavor of ice cream by The People. It seems to be the case that The People of the persian gulf want their despot in charge, not an escape from despotism. Why do you think that might be?
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