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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (5564)	10/16/2001 1:11:45 PM
From: HG	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Not appeasing....overlooking a friend's erratic behaviour in context of the broader picture... Not defending him at all. I said - simply ignore it in favour of a broader alliance. Saudi was an ally, so sometimes we gotta overlook a friends mistakes... Now if you DONT think Saudi is an ally, which I don't think it is, well, I'd get the hell out of their country and bomb Bin Ladin's fund raisers when I decide to broaden the conflict. <puff puff> You can't call them friends and then insult them. If they are doing it, they're wrong. Why would you want to lower yourself to their standard ? What would that achieve anyway ? If the American public feels so strongly, well, a better message to the govt is - Pull out the forces from Saudi and lump them with the rest. THATs a better strategy than this floundering "Loves Me Loves Me Not" dithering. I get your point and i agree with it in principle....i hope you understand what i mean..... Of course I could ask "How is this different than Bush's comment about the recent killings in India ? ", but nah...I'll just drop it ! I am in no confrontation kinda mood today. <g>

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (5564)	10/16/2001 1:16:06 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Al Waleed needs a come-uppance. He's been profiled on CNBC as some major investment guru, Well, he did own a major stake in Planet Hollywood. Not so smart LOL. When you have billions to invest, and the market is on an extended bull run, its easy to look smart. Al Waleed has been profiled as a buyer a number of times since the peak in march 2000... and the market has continued on down each time after he was profiled. Rather like Abby Joesph Cohen actually! (couldn't resist)

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (5564)	10/16/2001 5:34:04 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I guess if Saudi Arabia doesn't want to support the USA, then there is no point in supporting Saudi Arabia. So, maybe the situation is now back to that of 1989 and in a little while Saddam Hussein might inquire again as to whether the USA would object to a bit of territorial acquisition in the region to reduce disputes over oil fields shared between two countries and to spread the oil wealth of the Saudi Arabian peninsular more fairly among the population. I've heard that there are a lot of Iraqis who could do with improved oil sales and cash flow forecasts. Maybe Saudi Arabia needs to be less arrogant. They struck the jackpot by being born on top of the world's biggest oil reservoirs. The violent, arrogant, religious wacko, terrorist children of that oil wealth struck the jackpot by destroying some of the people and the biggest buildings at the core of the wealth which makes their oil worth anything [actually, with the world's economy increasingly running in cyberspace, there is no longer a core, so Osama's fighting something he has no hope of slowing]. The Saudis have a presumption of wealth which an invading Iraqi army would soon alter. Saudi Arabia hasn't been rantingly in favour of the USA killing all the people associated with the mass murder in WTC. I wonder what would happen if the USA invited Saudi Arabia to be more enthusiastic about supporting the USA changing the government of Afghanistan to a secular self-governing UN protectorate under a constitution handed down as with Japan after WWII. If the Saudis don't want to help, maybe the USA would revert to the age-old shifting alliances in the middle east and pull out of Saudi Arabia, order a few ships full of oil from Iraq in exchange for new and improved tanks and fighter aircraft and tell Saddam that the USA isn't interested in Saudi oil anymore. The thought of Saddam renovating the political system in Saudi Arabia might give Saudi Arabia pause and get them to take a bit more seriously the situation that the USA and the rest of us are dealing with. Sure, that would probably be very disruptive to oil supplies for a while, but by trebling the price, alternative supplies and other solutions [such as reduced demand] would soon be created. My understanding is that Saddam Hussein is keen to create a greater co-prosperity sphere in the middle east. If the USA helped him create stability in Saudi Arabia, I dare say he'd achieve it. But perhaps Saudi Arabia would prefer a closer association with the people creating the source of their wealth, [the oil buyers and the global, secular, free enterprise capitalist business world], instead of protecting terrorists in Afghanistan, many of whom are Saudi Arabian and out to take over Saudi Arabia. If the price of oil trebles, that's no bad thing for a lot of USA oil companies and the George Bush buddies. I believe that one of the reasons that Iraqi oil has been kept off the market for so long is that the reduction in supplies helps maintain oil prices and oil company profits. It is not just the OPEC suppliers who benefit from high-priced restricted supply of crude oil. These sure are interesting times. Mqurice