Metallicus: I know Assad has a bad reputation, but how much of that has been generated by the American / British propaganda
machine?
Judging the good they are not saying: Much of it!
Same old truth: That we have more brutal allies (like Saudi Arabia) it’s just they lack a civil war, to put this non-existent, love of human rights,
to any test.
Of Course...
It’s very easy to call the Middle East’s dictators “evil” but democracy is largely incompatible with this regions culture. Democracy has been
tested many times (beginning when Europe abandoned its Empires, and made former colonies independent from imperial rule) and the problems then, are
exactly the same now…
1. Moderates can’t fight physically as well as extremists because: For every moderate politician, there are a dozen jihadists offended
enough, to seek martyrdom with suicide assassination. Consequently oppressive police apparatus are needed by whoever is in power –an apparatus
waiting to be abused by whoever doesn’t want to let go.
2. The societies are tribal: Being in a tribe is a bit like being a Free Mason (it’s good for you because a Free Mason judge will look upon
you kindly, but bad for everyone else because justice isn’t served).
Worse: I spoke to a soldier returned from Afghanistan. He explained we’d never have democracy because: All anyone wanting to get elected need do is
make a “gift” to the Tribal leaders. Ten the Tribal leaders call a meeting, decide your gift is best, then instruct the rest of the Tribe to vote
for you. Nobody forces anyone in the tribe to do anything; but 99% do what they are told (out of tribal loyalty) from the word get go. This results in
endemic corruption –one thing something worse than a single corrupt dictator is hundreds of corrupt politicians.
3. The societies are highly fragmented along Sectarian lines. Without an oppressive police, a few bombs, in either Shiite or Sunni mosques,
invites retaliation and counter retaliation –as was immediately seen after Saddam’s police force was sacked. Soon the population are so outraged,
they majority only seek extremists, through the democratic process.
4. For the above reasons the populations tend to be poor (throughout all human history, anywhere, poverty is well documented to encourage
political extremism).
Democracy does have a history of working well but: Only in cultures that are not Tribal, nor dominated by religious sectarianism (i.e. religious
hatred against different faiths).
So Before Complaining About Assad…
Realize the choice is between a secular dictatorship, or Islamist-fundamentalist one.
However…
Whilst Syria is “a bad dictatorship” (for being Allies with Russia)
And whilst Gadaffi & Saddam were bad for spending too much oil wealth on their same people (they did to pacify them)…
Saudi Arabia “is good” because it spends the absolute minimum on its own people, and invests nearly all its oil wealth back into U.S government
bonds & investments.
In a Way: This Makes Absolute Sense of Current Policy…
The new regimes in Iraq, Libya and (soon to be) Syria, are unlikely to produce so much oil. But they can be counted on, to be one thing: Totally
corrupt!
So they look at what oil money they do have and think to themselves “where should I invest this stolen money so it may grow safely & wisely?” One
quick look at their own country, and it’s quite apparent it’s a mess “a risky investment”. So the money from the oil, gets transferred to
Stockbrokers, investing in the countries that bought the oil.
In This Way…
The U.S dollar, the British pound, and the Euro are protected. Instead of these currencies being weakened by being exchanged against e.g. Yen or
Rubbles, they are returned to the nations that exported the currency (in exchange for oil). And so… This is what is actually meant by it “all
being about oil”.
The Biggest Problem Is…
Nobody in the West seems to be too in control of who leads these countries new leaderships. Consequently: Islamic State is rising –and this stands
in time to lead to warfare potentially much bigger than Vietnam (and just like the first 6 years of Hitler) the longer the West delays properly going
to war with them, the harder to remove they will become, and so the bigger the eventual war will be –the higher the eventual death toll. But before
waging war against ISIS, it would be nice to know that this idea of always seeking democracy, can be explained to the public, as flawed.
CJCrawley: I'm confused.
The BBC article you quote is about training moderates to fight IS, not President Assad.
Oh for goodness sake! This is simply how the BBC
-Government "markets" UK military, involvement. The UK has stated countless times that it wants Assad gone, and knows full well that the moderates are
heavily infiltrated by ISIS –will easily have kit stolen by ISIS, unless they somehow serve ISIS i.e. by fighting President Assad.
Of course ISIS (or something like it) will terminate the moderates when Assad is gone –as the extremists did to the very few moderates, in
Libya.
edit on 090705 by Liberal1984 because: (no reason given)