Thursday, December 14, 2006

A Way Forward, a Look Back

The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush’s new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a U.S. strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Washington and the former chief of Saudi intelligence, informed the State Department on Dec. 11 that he had resigned after only 15 months on the job and flew home.

The unceremonious departure was seen as another signal of Saudi anger over Bush’s regional policies. In that view, Turki’s resignation was akin to the recall of an ambassador between two hostile states, albeit softened by Turki’s insistence that he was leaving to spend more time with his family.

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4 comments:

rmc2004 said...

No one knows diddly about these things. We speculate wildly, debate and argue for nothing. We are poorly informed by our government and media.

Thu Dec 14, 08:55:00 PM 2006
mommadona said...

So, where does Bandar fit back home in all this? Is he still a player?

And, is this "religion" talking or is this the Saud family CYAing because Bubble Boy Blew It?

Thu Dec 14, 09:16:00 PM 2006
Ole Ullern said...

The perception of how the world works, itself makes up part of how the world works.

Contrary to the apparent approach by the BushII-adm, that fractal-function cannot be made to make up the whole function. I.e. the perception of how the world works still doesn't determine how the world works. Even as we humans have caught on to the feedback-function inherent in the perception of how anything including human action works, it cannot replace the rest of the variables in the function – variables like physical facts and real human suffering. The BushII-adm. seems to be so removed from physical consequenses of its policies that somehow it hasn’t grasped this limitation in the new insight, that perception itself is included in what we see reflected in the public domain.

The main reference for evaluation of the effects of political action must remain the physical and human conditions influenced. Not the select opinions of any political administration, sought to be forcibly squeezed into being self-confirming.

The perception that the USA - with its military might alone amounting to half the global total (48 %, cf. SIPRI) - is in the lead of the international liberal tradition developing universal human rights and global well-being, has been destroyed by the US attack-wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. (Yes, it was absolutely in dispute up to then, but that clinched the matter.)

The perception of the world community having a direction towards greater justice, in spite of all atrocities happening, has been ruined by the exploitative trends in US policies becoming overtly dominant. This makes the whole world insecure, inflicting the damage that insecurity itself entails; damage like patience by frustated factions revoked in favor of armed conflict.

The US Saudi ambassador’s abrupt return from Washington is a bad sign in this context.

At the basis of any human interaction lies trust in the benevolence of all participants in that interaction. In the Middle East the current US adm. has destroyed this basic trust by proving itself to be highly, deeply, wildly untrustworthy.

With a UN hijacked at the core by the US veto-power and blatant blackmailings in the Security Counsel, the question becomes: Who do we trust? How does the world rebuild general common and mutual trust? What is the forum for this trust to be translated into conduct? With the perceived guarantor of this trust, the US, revealed as politically and criminally insane (cf. international laws and UN charter), what and who is to replace this power of guarantee? These are the questions now facing us all as responsible, enlightened world citizens.

We better build a new consensus, before the lack of consensus unravels the always fragile flower of rationality in the world.

Thu Dec 14, 11:42:00 PM 2006
brotherbruz said...

Good morning.

As for me, in the case of real Justice, any idea that supports these modern neocon tyrants and straightforward sends more 'innocent' (they do not know/understand what/why they are warfaring) to kill innocent people in the Middle East, who only would naturally desire to protect their Homeland, (who are the terroist?) would not any honest human?...POINT: don't send/dispatch men's body/soul to their deaths. The misadventure in the M.E. is driven by ill-distracted plutocrats who never will admit the truth. They are horrible, unbearable, total-failures and we see them despair before our eyes. End the war, No more soldiers/civilians killed/murdered/sacrificed for oil etc. pride. A spidgon (sp?) of humility is in order. We should remain FURIOUS about this ridiculous jibber from McCains's crowd who'd bomb again the populations like he did in Hanoi...No more dead-target troops are needed in faraway lands. Bring them home to tend the Homestead. That's reasonable. Look back at the horrow of history. Move forward. Bush's gang go home. Bring troops home. We can all stay home to tend to better common-cents and tend to important honest business. thanks. thanks for formation of a commonsense community.

Fri Dec 15, 07:00:00 AM 2006

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