quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity


The thing is, the Saudis are the moderates in the area. They truly are our friends, and the hope is that they will climb into the current century as the world continues to shrink because they're mingling with us through the wonders of modern travel and communication and help to lead the rest of the Middle East towards a brighter future.

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ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda
Stop propping up this 15th Century tribal regime, and let their political situation sort itself out internally.

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ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

Moderates? Jesus christ!! Only in a Tom Clancy novel. Wahhabi is the root from which bin Laden and al Qaeda grew!  These savages behead their own children for having sex before marriage. These are the  "moderates" who are going to "lead the rest of the Middle East toward a brighter future?"

Moderates. Good god. Only Sanity would consider lunatics like this to be "moderates."

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ORIGINAL: Aylee

quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda
Stop propping up this 15th Century tribal regime, and let their political situation sort itself out internally.

Psst. . . Panda, that "15th century tribal regime" would be the Ottoman Empire.  Personally, I would prefer NOT to see that again.  Middle Eastern destabilization is much better. 

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ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda
Well, point taken about the Ottomans. I could have used a better turn of phrase.

But the point is, the royal family of Saudi Arabia wants to run their country as though they were still in the Dark Ages. The only reason they get away with it is because we support them and enable their atrocities. If it were possible to withdraw that support, their regime would collapse and they'd be hung like dogs in the street by the people they've been oppressing and mutilating for almost a century. Personally, I'd like to see that happen. It'd be bloody and it'd be chaotic, but in the long run probably far less so than the current state of affairs, and it's almost certainly inevitable at some point anyway. I'd like to see us step back and let them work it out.

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ORIGINAL: Aneirin

I am just wondering what will happen when the oil in those regions finally runs out,

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ORIGINAL: Sanity


What would be your best ideas for trying to moderate the Wahhabiists in the region?

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ORIGINAL: Sanity


And after all the bloodshed, who would take charge? The people are overwhelmingly Islamic fundamentalists and so odds are good that they would end up forming into a Wahhabi or Taliban or Al-Qaeda ran theocracy which would make the current Monarchs there seem like cute cuddly little teddy bears.

Then there is always the fundamentalist Islamic need to take over the world in the name of Allah (one country at a time) so if anything resembling your madness were ever to become a reality it could easily end up sparking world war three.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda
Well, point taken about the Ottomans. I could have used a better turn of phrase.

But the point is, the royal family of Saudi Arabia wants to run their country as though they were still in the Dark Ages. The only reason they get away with it is because we support them and enable their atrocities. If it were possible to withdraw that support, their regime would collapse and they'd be hung like dogs in the street by the people they've been oppressing and mutilating for almost a century. Personally, I'd like to see that happen. It'd be bloody and it'd be chaotic, but in the long run probably far less so than the current state of affairs, and it's almost certainly inevitable at some point anyway. I'd like to see us step back and let them work it out.

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ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

quote:

(CNN) -- A Lebanese man charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday, the man's lawyer said Wednesday. May El Khansa, the attorney for Ali Hussain Sibat, told CNN that she and Sibat's family were informed about the upcoming execution. She said she heard from a source in Saudi Arabia with knowledge of the case and the proceedings that Saudi authorities "will carry out the execution."

The Saudi Ministry of Justice could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter. El Khansa said she has appealed to Lebanon's prime minister, Saad Hariri, and president, Michel Suleiman, to stop the execution. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to block it as well.

Sibat is the former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Beirut-based satellite TV channel "Sheherazade." According to his lawyer, Sibat would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience. El Khansa told CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.

No Refund On The Return Ticket, Either!


So. These ignorant, barbaric savages are going to behead someone who came to their country as a tourist because he tells fortunes on television in his home country. You know what? Fuck these people. Pump every drop of it out, pay them fair value, and get the hell out of the Middle East. Let them burn each other at the stake if that's what they want to do. They want to live in the 15th Century, let 'em have at it.

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ORIGINAL: Sanity


That must be the same kind of attitude that conquistadors such as Cortez had after witnessing things like Montezuma's human sacrifices. The kind of thinking that drove the subjugation of those thought to be 'primitives' in Africa and the Americas, and so on.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity


The thing is, the Saudis are the moderates in the area. They truly are our friends, and the hope is that they will climb into the current century as the world continues to shrink because they're mingling with us through the wonders of modern travel and communication and help to lead the rest of the Middle East towards a brighter future.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ThatDamnedPanda

Moderates? Jesus christ!! Only in a Tom Clancy novel. Wahhabi is the root from which bin Laden and al Qaeda grew!  These savages behead their own children for having sex before marriage. These are the  "moderates" who are going to "lead the rest of the Middle East toward a brighter future?"

Moderates. Good god. Only Sanity would consider lunatics like this to be "moderates."

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ORIGINAL: slvemike4uDo you really believe the shit you type....or is it just that it is the party line and you feel duty bound to parrot it?
They are about to behead a man...for the crime of "fortune telling" and you refer to them as moderates( and I don't care who their neighbors are.....they are not and never have been moderates).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sanity


Some of the things we do seem just as bad to them, mike, and they could be right about some of it. But since you're sure you're without sin, go ahead and cast that stone I suppose.

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ORIGINAL: slvemike4uDo you really believe the shit you type....or is it just that it is the party line and you feel duty bound to parrot it?
They are about to behead a man...for the crime of "fortune telling" and you refer to them as moderates( and I don't care who their neighbors are.....they are not and never have been moderates).