Principles of the arms trade
We are fighting in Iraq, purportedly, for freedom and democracy, and all those good things that go with them.So we have a proud record of getting behind democrats, right?
Well yeah. When we are not selling billions of fighter planes to a repressive regime that does not actually face an aerial threat.
Officials pointed out that Saudi Arabia is an "important strategic ally" of the UK in the region. Us cynics read that as code for "they have loads of oil, so we don't care about the torture, the womanhating or the complete lack of democratic structures", because the Saudis don't play much of a strategic military role in the area. They do all their fighting through proxies (mostly against us) and although they fiddle diplomatically, they are not really engaged for the good. Quite the opposite. Because their nation was formed as a coalition of an aggressive, militarily strong tribe and extremist Sunnis (and we are talking way out there), the Saudis mostly busy themselves with hating Shias and undermining Shia polities throughout the region.
posted by Dr Zen @ 11:26 am
1 Comments:
Hi from Russia!! Hope you're keeping well.
SJ xx
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