US in deep trouble with it's ISIS/Turkey/Kurdish policies

[Kirkland Laing]

Yes Kirk, we all know the Arabs and most leaders live . Opulent lives but I think Mrs Bashir showed off too much of her taste for western goods Gucci and what not. Basically the entire middle east has been a pawn for Britain, the US and Islam itself for years. I don't think that can be blamed for all of its current problems. Africa was a playground for the US and Russia during the cold war. Once again, can that be blamed for its current problems today.

They've been fighting the same war over there since the seventh century. Nothing is going to be resolved in our lifetimes. The last thing we should be doing though is destabilising a bunch of countries that were stable for decades.

tyranny is not stability. Carp, I sound like Louis Farrakhan

How many decades did the Assad family rule Syria with an orderly if dictatorial society? Or the Ba' aath party rule Iraq (Saddam plus others)? Or the Al Saud family rule Saudi Arabia? Or the Shah run Iran? Or the current mob run Iran? Or the Gulf princes rules their emirates? Gaddafi in Libya, various military dictators heading the same regime in Egypt? They're not pretty but they produce decade after decade of stable societies, QED. Encourage their downfall or actively overthrow them and look what you get.

I assume you are well traveled and have dealt with a vast array of culture. Have you had much opportunity to speak with People who leave these, as you say, stable countries and see what the people say about living in them. It's really quite chilling. It tears my heart out to hear the people tell me their stories of living in these regimes. I'm not saying the west has all the answers for these countries. They come from a different point of view. But Damon they went through some horrible things and fear speaking out as People still disappear in the night in these stable regimes. Are the people so beyond repair this is how they need to be governed to maintain stability as you say. Power vacuums are a frightful thing in those countries and People running on moderation seem to be locked up or disappear. A number of Chinese just got arrested as they dared protest the government is during an edict to take down crosses in houses of worship. I just am baffled by stuff like this, though not surprised. China wants its yen to become competitive to the dollar on the international stage, I don't think it is Chinese economics that may hinge this in its twenty year goal to do so, but I do think it's going to be Chinese politics that may hinder this but it's politics. Xi is in the midst of a power grab saying he wants to pull back Dengs collective administration. Sorry, I went off topic with the Chinese thing, feel free to post a graph proving me wrong. Did you know Indonesians constitution outlaws atheism, strange.





This

I know quite a few people from this region. A lot of my clients come from the oily part of the world. What they've said for years is that yeah, such and such is a horrible repressive dictator but (they're all supporters of whatever regime they're living under) what's the alternative to us? If you take us away the crazies take power. I had half a dozen Saudi/Iraqi/Iranian guys tell me exactly what would happen in Iraq before Bush invaded. Oh, and one Jordanian. They all said Iran would take over the oily southern part of Iraq and the Kurds would split off and they'd both leave the non-oily Sunni (Saddam) part which used to hold the power to rot, and that the jihadis would take over the Sunni part. One of the Iraqi guys I talked to moved to Syria just before Bush invaded but in about 2005 he told me Syria was going to end up like Sunni Iraq, at war with itself and he fucked off to Dubai. Now he's making plans to go to Switzerland. The other one moved to London in 2002. Could tell you a lot more here about how accurate they were, let's just say they were spot on.

So it's the choice between bad and worse. Someone like Saddam or Gaddafi, who at least keep order and the electricity on, or ISIS or similar nutjobs.