Saudi kings visit to uk

whats peoples opinions on this?
the king also said britain is slacking on the war on terror and isnt doing enough,

whats up with that?
Saudi treats its people far worse then Iran, (9/11 high jackers were mostly saudi)

yet the leaders here are willing to wipe that to one side to get a couple billion dollors in arms sales,

whats happend to moral standerds?
why treat one country diffrent from another, atleast in Iran they have Jews and christians that worship freely,


(this is mostly aimed at UK members

news.bbc.co.uk...

I have to say that Europe in general is not doing much, look at the troop contributions to Afghanistan.

United States - about 17,000 troops

Most European nations send on average about 300 troops yet their armed forces are not exactly small and weak.

Non european nations are much better, the Kingdom of Tonga for example where the total size of the Royal Tongan Defense Service is about 600 yet somehow manages to send about 100 guys to Iraq yet Belgium only sends 300 out of 41,000?

[edit on 30-10-2007 by ChrisF231]

reply to post by bodrul


Oil supplies (Saudi Arabia has about 25% of the world's proven oil supplies), intelligence, an Arab ally in the Middle East and extremely lucrative defence contracts (they just signed a deal to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoons and are considering purchasing a few Type 45 Destroyers for their navy). That's where moral standards have gone.

The Saudis and Britain have a long standing relationship, and even now it's arguable that Saudi Arabia is closer to Britain than the US - Saudi Arabia shares concerns about Iran but is worried about the consequences of a US military attack, for instance (since the Saudis are just across the Persian Gulf - in the firing line for retaliation, in other words).

I suppose it depends on what you think Britain's foreign policy should be; moral or pragmatic? Should we uphold democracy, freedom and so on even at the expense of our own interests or should we be more flexible?

It's a dilemma, especially for Western nations. Others, like Russia and China, have completely pragmatic foreign policies.