I struggle to understand why the US government consistently lets the Gulf monarchies off the hook for extrajudicial killings, funding terrorism, no democracy or rule of law, whatsoever, and all kinds of other repression and human rights abuses that are (rightly!) condemned across the bipartisan establishment when it’s the Syrian, Iranian, or Russian regimes doing it.
And it’s not like there’s a major voting constituency in the US that you can point to who are fervently pro-Saudi/GCC monarchies in general that you can point to like you can with Israel.
Is it just all the money that so many powerful people (and defense contractors) in Washington/Northern Virginia depend on from these stupidly wealthy family dictatorships (based especially on that sweet black gold)? Is it the notion that they’re “less bad” than Iran?
Or maybe, we in the West too squeamish to do the dirty work of American Empire and so we outsource much of it to foreign despots whose own power is dependent on repressing the populations they control. Then we, and much of our media, can hold Qatar responsible re: the World Cup or Saudi Arabia re: Khashoggi and Yemen, without considering our own --or to be more accurate, our elected leaders, economic elites, and security state bureaucrats--complicity in the crimes of said “pariah” regimes.
See, it’s not the US or UK government’s fault that the Saudis murder Yemeni children (pay no attention to the logistics and weapons of that campaign)! Who could’ve predicted that Mohammed bin Salman would be so bad? Don’t blame any of the Western businessmen and journalists who hyped him up! And who could have POSSIBLY predicted that awarding the World Cup to Qatar would be a bad idea??
sounds like being held accountable by the biden admin means you get a ton of weapons and no consequences whatsoever so i too would like to be held accountable by the admin
I am Debanjan from India. Do you still Remember me ? We used to chat a lot on geopolitics back in 2012-2013. You also have had your own website during that time.
As usual you continue to do very good work as shown in your newsletter. I also have my own newsletter link I give below. I would love to be in touch with you and have your feedback on my newsletter.
I prefer to write on geopolitics involving China and South Asia in general. I have been trying to learn Mandarin in last few years for this purpose. I am thinking about writing something on recent visit by the Chinese president to Saudi and its geopolitical ramification.
How is your mom doing ? How is Paul Gottinger doing ?
Hey folks, let me know if you have any questions - will try to respond to each one.
Oil is a hell of a drug
I struggle to understand why the US government consistently lets the Gulf monarchies off the hook for extrajudicial killings, funding terrorism, no democracy or rule of law, whatsoever, and all kinds of other repression and human rights abuses that are (rightly!) condemned across the bipartisan establishment when it’s the Syrian, Iranian, or Russian regimes doing it.
And it’s not like there’s a major voting constituency in the US that you can point to who are fervently pro-Saudi/GCC monarchies in general that you can point to like you can with Israel.
Is it just all the money that so many powerful people (and defense contractors) in Washington/Northern Virginia depend on from these stupidly wealthy family dictatorships (based especially on that sweet black gold)? Is it the notion that they’re “less bad” than Iran?
Or maybe, we in the West too squeamish to do the dirty work of American Empire and so we outsource much of it to foreign despots whose own power is dependent on repressing the populations they control. Then we, and much of our media, can hold Qatar responsible re: the World Cup or Saudi Arabia re: Khashoggi and Yemen, without considering our own --or to be more accurate, our elected leaders, economic elites, and security state bureaucrats--complicity in the crimes of said “pariah” regimes.
See, it’s not the US or UK government’s fault that the Saudis murder Yemeni children (pay no attention to the logistics and weapons of that campaign)! Who could’ve predicted that Mohammed bin Salman would be so bad? Don’t blame any of the Western businessmen and journalists who hyped him up! And who could have POSSIBLY predicted that awarding the World Cup to Qatar would be a bad idea??
...anyway, keep up the good work, Ken!
sounds like being held accountable by the biden admin means you get a ton of weapons and no consequences whatsoever so i too would like to be held accountable by the admin
I really hate how this rail situation turned out. Workers can't quit because of pension questions! Free market nothing...
Ken your name has been removed from Twitters search.
Sorry Ken just forgot in my last post to include this URL of my newsletter. I would love your views on the same.
https://wonderfuldistractions.substack.com/p/the-largest-beneficiary-of-a-hegemonic
Hi Ken,
I am Debanjan from India. Do you still Remember me ? We used to chat a lot on geopolitics back in 2012-2013. You also have had your own website during that time.
As usual you continue to do very good work as shown in your newsletter. I also have my own newsletter link I give below. I would love to be in touch with you and have your feedback on my newsletter.
I prefer to write on geopolitics involving China and South Asia in general. I have been trying to learn Mandarin in last few years for this purpose. I am thinking about writing something on recent visit by the Chinese president to Saudi and its geopolitical ramification.
How is your mom doing ? How is Paul Gottinger doing ?
Take care
Debanjan