11-14-2015, 04:28 AM -
(11-14-2015, 04:01 AM)GeoffK1874 Wrote: Well said Shaun.
PS Let's also lobby the Saudis like fuck to crack down on the corrupt bastards who are funding these nutjobs.
And that - with more than a nod to Jeb Bush's Hoodie correctly singling out Turkey for its appalling, nefarious, double-crossing role in all this - is the biggest challenge of all.
We currently prop up one of the most abhorrent regimes on planet Earth. They give us oil; we give them arms which they use to commit war crimes in Yemen; and political fiat, which they use to confirm once and for all what a joke the UN is by heading its Human Rights Council. And they said irony died when Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize.
And yet, and yet... that vile, disgusting regime, which executes children for being at a protest and women for being raped, is still the only bulwark against something infinitely worse: ISIS effectively taking the country over, and unleashing a tidal wave of Salafi and Wahhabi madness targeting Iran, and trying to start World War Three. Alarmingly, right now, it's not a question of if, but when that happens - because with oil prices so low, the decline of KSA is rapidly accelerating.
We always knew their oil dependence wasn't sustainable - and it must be a good thing that the US has started extricating itself from Saudi dependence. But the consequences of a Saudi collapse are terrifying. I don't think anyone has any answers on that; there are no good options that I can see.