The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136495 Message #3161214
Posted By: akenaton
27-May-11 - 07:38 AM
Thread Name: BS: Bombing of Tripoli March-April, 2011
Subject: RE: BS: Bombing of Tripoli March-April, 2011
Lighter ....I did mention further up the thread, the fact that Col Gadaffi was about to tear up a multi billion oil rights contract with BP, shortly before the insurgency started.
I suppose we decided that it would be easier to use the insurgency as a pretext to kill or remove Col Gadaffi and his supporters than agree to the conditions required by his oil ministry.
Ex CIA man writes in todays Times on the "Arab Spring" and how we fail to understand the situation
"Mr Scheuer said that the cause of violent extremism was undimmed, despite claims that the Arab Spring demonstrated its rejection. "We in the West have come away from the Egypt experience thinking democracy is on the march there. I doubt it. We have listened to the folks who we agree with, and say the things we want to hear."
He said that US/UK foreign policy and Western intervention defined its relationship with the Muslim world. "There are almost 900 pages of primary sources on bin Laden — sermons, speeches, etc ... There is almost nothing in there about waging a war against the West for its freedoms or liberty or gender equality or drinking alcohol.
"It is support for Israel, support for the Saudi police state, it's our presence in the Arab peninsula, it's support for the Russians in the Islamic Caucuses.
"There is no more effective recruiter for al-Qaeda than the status quo of American foreign policy." Full article