Middle East Experience

[AsburySkinsFan]

John Stewart hits the nail on the head with this one.

30 Years of Middle East Experience

[twa]

Pretty funny,

Why am I not surprised you listen to Colbert?

[Riggo-toni]

Brilliant! Love Jon Stewart.

[Mad Mike]

He's a moron.

20% of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia all right. What he does not tell you is that 100% of them want to overthrow the Saudi government.

Put's a whole different spin on things doesn't it.

[Koolblue13]

15 of the 19 are from SA.

[Koolblue13]

That was a riot, what a racket we have going. No wonder China won't stop dealing with Iran. It's one hell of a piece of the pie we have.

[Funkyalligator]

Stewart said 20% of the hijackers were not from Saudi Arabia...and he was right as for all the other points brought up in this segment they are all true......so don't bother trying to discredit him for telling the truth

[SkinsFanAnt]

He's a moron.

20% of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia all right. What he does not tell you is that 100% of them want to overthrow the Saudi government.

Put's a whole different spin on things doesn't it.

LOL...yeah....who's a moron again?......if you really want to know about hijackers, there weren't any. Ever heard of Global Hawk drones? Ever seen a demolition before...the towers were rigged to go down (and how in the world did the terrorists get tower 7 to go down...without even hitting it?...amazing!).

But, the 80% (not 20%...dude can't even do the math) 'suppossed terrorists' actually were from Saudi Arabia...they were most likely men wanted by their government or killed by their government or they were just political enemies of the royal family.

I'm suprised Stewart left out the part about the Bush admin flying Bin Laden's family out of the U.S. later the same day after the attacks happened...wow, i mean really....how sloppy can our gov't get before we realize 9-11 was an inside job?

[Midnight Judges]

That segment was brilliant. One thing though, why did he leave out the Iran contra? It would have gone perfectly with the trend there.

[Midnight Judges]

He's a moron.

20% of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia all right. What he does not tell you is that 100% of them want to overthrow the Saudi government.

Put's a whole different spin on things doesn't it.

I know right? Sending weapons and advanced technologies to volatile parts of the world has always served us well in the past. :doh:

[Koolblue13]

I know right? Sending weapons and advanced technologies to volatile parts of the world has always served us well in the past. :doh:

Hell yeah it has, do you relize how much money we've made off that tactic. Now, with Iraq and soon, Iran, somebodies gonna be rich(er).

[zoony]

^^^ who-boy :doh:

As for the original link, pretty funny stuff. Not a big fan of the daily show, but that was good

[JMS]

LOL...yeah....who's a moron again?......if you really want to know about hijackers, there weren't any. Ever heard of Global Hawk drones? Ever seen a demolition before...the towers were rigged to go down (and how in the world did the terrorists get tower 7 to go down...without even hitting it?...amazing!).

But, the 80% (not 20%...dude can't even do the math) 'suppossed terrorists' actually were from Saudi Arabia...they were most likely men wanted by their government or killed by their government or they were just political enemies of the royal family.

I'm suprised Stewart left out the part about the Bush admin flying Bin Laden's family out of the U.S. later the same day after the attacks happened...wow, i mean really....how sloppy can our gov't get before we realize 9-11 was an inside job?

How can you claim this dribble? Didn't the world witness on live TV the second plane flying into the WTO? Didn't half of NY see live each plane hit?

Also technical note. Bin Laudin's family was flown out a few days after 9/11 on Sept 15th after the US re-openned the air space. Bush didn't pay for the planes. According to the FBI. The royal family of Saudi did, or Bin Laudin himself.

As for the Daily Show, he's very funny and thought provoking. His middle east editorial is factually accurate even if it is simplistic.

[Koolblue13]

Somebody is a day too late.

[zoony]

I know right? Sending weapons and advanced technologies to volatile parts of the world has always served us well in the past. :doh:

Worked pretty well in Japan, Israel, and all of Western Europe. :whoknows:

You realize it's this policy that has allowed us to become the global superpower that we are today, right?

Of course there is gonna be blowback... not defending that... but your viewpoint is extremely myopic.

[Midnight Judges]

Worked pretty well in Japan, Israel, and all of Western Europe. :whoknows:

You realize it's this policy that has allowed us to become the global superpower that we are today, right?

Of course there is gonna be blowback... not defending that... but your viewpoint is extremely myopic.

You call western Europe volatile?

[Funkyalligator]

Well US foreign policy post world war II...in regards to selling weapons over seas has caused us a great deal of problems...just look at what happened in regards to the ISS and the mujahadeen in Afghanistan.....

[zoony]

You call western Europe volatile?

Are you serious, or is this some sort of trick?

There wasn't a more volatile part of the world thru the 20th century. Archduke Ferdinand, Hitler, Churchill, etc.

....

[zoony]

Well US foreign policy post world war II...in regards to selling weapons over seas has caused us a great deal of problems...just look at what happened in regards to the ISS and the mujahadeen in Afghanistan.....

You talking about how a bunch of goat-herders were able to repel the Soviet's attempt to capture a warm water port and establish a sphere of influence in the reason?

And we sent no $$$ to the mujahadeen. I wish people would stop saying that. We sent money to Pakistan, who turned it around and supplied the rebels as they saw fit.

Bin Laden would have been created and ended up hating the west regardless of whether or not we'd sent aid to Pakistan. Have you ever read why Bin Laden hates the west? Look no further than the Gulf War. The war in Afghanistan had nothing to do with it.

....

[JMS]

Worked pretty well in Japan, Israel, and all of Western Europe. :whoknows:

You realize it's this policy that has allowed us to become the global superpower that we are today, right?

Of course there is gonna be blowback... not defending that... but your viewpoint is extremely myopic.

Actually that's not right. What allowed us to become a global super power was WWII and the Marshal Plan. WWII because it destroyed the European infrastructure which competed against us, while it mandated massive capital into our own industrial base to produce weapons and also funnelled global investment dollars into our economy. The Marshal plan because it offered cheap credit to the Europeans to rebuild their infrastructure; with the caveat that they spend most of the money in the United States further accelerating and fueling our industries.

Selling sophisticated weapons to Japan is not why we are a global super power. Japan makes most of their own weapons and purchases far less weapons from the United States than the US Military does. Israel doesn't buy much of anything from the United States. We give them most of their weapons gratis (FREE!!) . Even so, we also pay for them to develop their own weapons, many of which are inferior to the weapons we supply them. Some of the weapons we pay Israel to develop and build, Israel sells to other countries like China. Like the Lavi fighter jet developed with a Billion dollar gift from the United States government. The Lavi is now produced in China which purchased the plans and rights from Israel at American Tax payer expense. It's credited from advancing China's airforce from the 1950's to the 1970's American technology. Israel still flys American planes, and is lobbying hard to get the new F-22 raptor. ( gratis of coarse!! )

Either way, arms sales are not what made this country a supper power and never have been. They are a relatively new development. Used to be we didn't sell our best equipment to very many other countries. Used to be we pursued a balance of power doctrine in order to diminish the likelihood of war. That was the case in the Middle east until the early 1970's.

[Midnight Judges]

I'm curious then Zoony, if you had to do it all over again, would you sell weapons to Saddam Hussein? Allow him to obtain Anthrax from the USA? Missiles to Iran to fund contras in South America after it was forbidden by congress? Send weapons to Usama Bin Laden (Albeit through a known con artist via Pakistan). Here I was thinking these were all clear-cut mistakes.

[headexplode]

He's a moron.

20% of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia all right. What he does not tell you is that 100% of them want to overthrow the Saudi government.

Put's a whole different spin on things doesn't it.

They did not want to overthrow the Saudi government, they wanted to depose certain elements of the Saudi government, those whom they believed were pushing too cozy a relationship with the West. Extremists hold plenty of power in Saudi Arabia (as they do in Pakistan) and there are more than a few important and rich folks who support the extreme goals of Bin Laden and his followers.

So, yes, you're perspective puts a "whole different spin on things," but doesn't actually reflect the reality of the situation there.

[Koolblue13]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html

[zoony]

I'm curious then Zoony, if you had to do it all over again, would you sell weapons to Saddam Hussein? Allow him to obtain Anthrax from the USA? Missiles to Iran to fund contras in South America after it was forbidden by congress? Send weapons to Usama Bin Laden (Albeit through a known con artist via Pakistan). Here I was thinking these were all clear-cut mistakes.

Which weapons did Osama use against us? He carries a Kalishnakov which he claims to have taken from a dead soviet soldier. There have always been rumors of 8 missing Stinger missiles, but they've never surfaced. The RPG's that the Taliban/Al Queada fighters are famous for are of Soviet/Chinese origin.

As for Hussein, when we invaded, his entire mechanized division was Soviet leftovers. His planes were MiGs. His troops carried AK's. Where were the American weapons?

And yes, like I said earlier, there is blowback. And I'm not gonna sit here and say we have a perfect track record. But what I AM going to be very clear about, is that YOU, MJ, enjoy the standard of living you do in this country because of the pro-active role that the U.S. Government has taken in protecting its economic and political interests abroad. What other country is so wealthy that someone can get a 4 year degree in music, and enjoy the standard of living you have?

I think you should bear that in mind if you're gonna be the first to criticize the mistakes that have been made.

[JMS]

I'm curious then Zoony, if you had to do it all over again, would you sell weapons to Saddam Hussein? Allow him to obtain Anthrax from the USA? Missiles to Iran to fund contras in South America after it was forbidden by congress? Send weapons to Usama Bin Laden (Albeit through a known con artist via Pakistan). Here I was thinking these were all clear-cut mistakes.

Saddam's Iraq was never an American Client state for weapons. Saddam's Iraq did not have a single major American weapons system. Not tanks, planes, missiles, ships, or anything. Iraq was a soviet client throughout the cold war and right up until the second invasion.

The most America did for Iraq was to not complain when our allies in Saudi and Kuwait footed the bill for more soviet equipment during the Iran Iraq war.

As for the contras in Nicaragua and Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the 1980's the weapons we supplied them were economically relevant although they did eventually lead to the soviets pulling back in those regions of the world.