I dislike extremist mideast culture

[MattTheSkywalker]

the saudi's are the one of the largest purchasers of US weapons. Why is that? I don't care what anyone says, Iraqs army was decimated after 1991 and has not recovered since. Iraq is not a threat to the saudi's.

They bought it to show that they could do it. this is very much in line with Saudi and to an extent Arab culture: They want to show how powerul they are when there is no viable threat.

As soon as there is, they want American help.

 

[the nature boy]

They bought it to show that they could do it. this is very much in line with Saudi and to an extent Arab culture: They want to show how powerul they are when there is no viable threat.

As soon as there is, they want American help.

well I guess we disagree about their reasons for buying the eqipment. however I do agree that when trouble starts, they'll call for the US to bail them out.

 

[HG Pennypacker]

well I guess we disagree about their reasons for buying the eqipment. however I do agree that when trouble starts, they'll call for the US to bail them out.

I blame everything, now, on the Hopi Indians, and for good reason.

Plus....I like hotdog flavored ice cream.

 

[vixenbabe]

I think you might have missed his point.

Saudi Arabia has spent $300Billion on US arms since the end of Gulf War 1. It has a population of approx 21 million, so even a fraction of this amount spent interally would have been beneficial to the economy.

When it was first creatde as a counnry, it was so rich from oil, and so sparsely populated, that people didn't have to work, The royal family just paid them. No infrastructure was developed.

In 1980, the per capita income was $26,000. (That's high for world standards. In 1980 it was stratospheric). Now it is $6900 and unemployment hovers around 30%.

This is a result of population growth without economic growth. The royal family has been hoarding wealth all along, as the people starve.

I think Frack's point was that the governments have enough money for the nations to grow, but the rulers keep the wealth for themselves at their people's expense.

Matt, I was just pointing out that these oil rich countries HAVE a select few holding the bags of gold. Yes, those holding the gold dole it out under their own conditions too. Damn, sounds VERY much like Saddam's caste system! His tactics were NO different than the Saudi's in ways we do not see on TV.

As I sit here and watch what is happening to Saddam's power ...I wonder how many other Arab countries,etc., are shitting their pants right now?!

 

[Frackal]

Matt was correct about the point I was making

 

[vixenbabe]

Frack..Have you been exposed to other culture's and it's people?

 

[Ffactor]

I think we should set aup a pseudo democracy in Iraq and stop the spread of radical Isamic fundamentalism. It will atke a long time but it must be done through forced eduction which is why I think the country should be under martial law for a long time.

 

[Lao Tzu]

I think we should set aup a pseudo democracy in Iraq and stop the spread of radical Isamic fundamentalism. It will atke a long time but it must be done through forced eduction which is why I think the country should be under martial law for a long time.

I am unsure how to do that. If you check this you'll see that Islam is an inherit threat to freedom & democracy. Even africa, with its tribalism, colonialism, dictators & poverty, has way more freedom & democracy than the middle east. 17% of African countries qualify as 'free', and 38% are elected democracies. 0% of mid east countries qualify as free (excluding Israel) and 7% qualify as democracies (excluding Israel). Of all 47 Islamic countries, 0-2% qualify as 'free' and 23% qualify as democracies. It will be hard, establishing freedom & democracy in Iraq might be like trying to set up a mathematics club in the east wing of Vincennes hospital. I already hear the Shiites want to establish an Iranian leadership. So fuck. I guess that $80 billion could've been spent elsewhere to free people. I would've recommened North Korea instead of Iraq, at least the people there wouldn't demolish the freedom the coalition spent blood & money to give them.

 

[the nature boy]

I am unsure how to do that. If you check this you'll see that Islam is an inherit threat to freedom & democracy. Even africa, with its tribalism, colonialism, dictators & poverty, has way more freedom & democracy than the middle east. 17% of African countries qualify as 'free', and 38% are elected democracies. 0% of mid east countries qualify as free (excluding Israel) and 7% qualify as democracies (excluding Israel). Of all 47 Islamic countries, 0-2% qualify as 'free' and 23% qualify as democracies. It will be hard, establishing freedom & democracy in Iraq might be like trying to set up a mathematics club in the east wing of Vincennes hospital. I already hear the Shiites want to establish an Iranian leadership. So fuck. I guess that $80 billion could've been spent elsewhere to free people. I would've recommened North Korea instead of Iraq, at least the people there wouldn't demolish the freedom the coalition spent blood & money to give them.

at some point most contries evolved into democracy. Japan wasn't a democracy after world war II. England was once a monarcy, as were many european nations. If they can do it why can't Iraq?

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

I think we should set aup a pseudo democracy in Iraq and stop the spread of radical Isamic fundamentalism. It will atke a long time but it must be done through forced eduction which is why I think the country should be under martial law for a long time.

IRAQ IS NOT A FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAMIC STATE. It is one of the most secular Arab nations in the region. Notice the never-demonstred links to al-Qaeda and the fact that no 9-11 hijackers were Iraqi....

They've been under martial law for a long time with Hussein. If we impose it on them, what have we accomplished? Why did Americans die? Why did we go there?

You're off-base here. Hard to blame you though, the propaganda is strong.