Nevermind the other stuff you say but this is bull. How does the US "block Middle Easterners out of self-determination"?
I think you're being sarcastic or kidding, but just to humor you I'll give you just one example: Egyptian millitary is enforcing the US's Middle East policy interests in Egypt to continue receiving the $1.5bn which the US gives them on a yearly basis. Some of the US' policy interests includes making sure peace is maintained with Israel, borders are controlled a certain way, international law is occassionally observed, etc. Summary: the US in the Middle East is like AIPAC in the US. Which is hilarious, because part of the reason the US is so involved in the first place is because of AIPAC. You see, self-determination means.. well, it means to determine things for yourself, and your country. If an external party is giving cash to your military, and for decades the president was essentially the head of the military, then you are paying the government to do what's in your interest rather than their own. Normally, a government would take this cash and ensure that it doesn't compromise the independence/transparency of governmental decisions, but this never happened, and the US never cared. So when Egyptians' choices are filtered by US policy interests (who receive approval for filtration by giving out cash and weapons to the Egyptian millitary), that's not self-determination. That's self-determination after an external party has limited your options. That's another sovereign nation telling you what you can and can't do by going over your head to the most powerful person in your country who will accept money and weapons in exchange for forcing their decisions onto you. Given that the Egyptian millitary personnel are not well off, this plan works like a charm since (what I suppose is also US policy) you get more bang for your buck with "poor" people. Maybe the Egyptian people want to alter the peace with Israel? Maybe they want to open the border with Gaza completely? It doesn't matter, because it's the people that the US pays that make these decisions. These sovereign decisions have been taken away from the Egyptian people. The logical recourse is not an internal revolution, the logical recourse is Egyptian people taking an aggressive stance towards the democratically elected US government bribing the millitary wing of the Egyptian government (which IMO can be very easily classified as an act of war). This is similar to how the Iranian government controls Iranians. They say voting can and should be free/independent, etc. But they have the right to veto anything (as the US does with Egypt via the military), the right to filter out undesirable candidates for leadership (as the US does with Egypt), and the right to keep puppets in power regardless of the constitution or people's wishes (again, exactly as the US did with Egypt). Most important in this whole thing, as I mentioned before, is that this is not the normal state of affairs in Egypt or the world. There will come a time when the people of Egypt would rather not have that money, it's just a matter of time. How do you think that's going to go?
Mathloom, you're making your argument with the premise that the Egyptian government is not representative of its people. You need to prove this is true, that the US is aware of it and is consciously supporting such a suppressive system to make your accusations.
Imagine someone posting a video with Ku-Klux-Klan propaganda, then discussing it as if there could be ANY merit to it...criticizing parts of it, but agreeing with other parts. The outrage would be huge, and rightly so. But in Mathloom's case, we have gotten used to him spreading Islamist propaganda and thinking, while veiling the propaganda efforts with some sprinkled criticism of parts of it.
So you say Al Qaeda is not at war with the US but that they want to attack the US (which they already have) and see the US as the corrupter of KSA. While I can agree that we in the West don't get a complete view of the Middle East here in the west and that a lot of our views of the people there, Arabs and Islam in general is tinted with paranoia this is a two way street. From my understanding is that many in the Middle East and other Islamic countries also have a very distorted view of the West. Yes I can see that you are pondering given how rambling this post was but if I can respond to some of the points you raise. While I can agree with you that the US and other global powers have not acted in the best interests of the people of the Middle East but I don't think all the ills of the Middle East can or should be placed on the US. The US has and still does support despotic regimes because they act in US interest but there have been revolutions in the Middle East that have deposed pro-US governments, Iran, and also periods of Arab nationalism that opposed the US, Nasser. The problem though is that those revolutions haven't been followed by sustained reforms. Instead in the case of Iran the revolution was hijacked by Mullahs while Arab Nationalism was squandered in wars with Israel and power grabs by military despots. We will see what happens with the Arab Spring but if true reform towards democracy and self-determination doesn't come out of it it will be another missed opportunity. So while yes the US has been an impediment towards reform in the region it seems to me as just a continued claim to victimhood to lay all responsibility on the West for the state of the Middle East.
AL Qaeda? Peace? HAHAHAHHAHAHA......... Al Qadea and Peace do not belong in the same sentence. Sorry Mathloom but that was garbage
While I normally support Mathloom's posting in the past, I can't help but identify with ATW in this particular instance. This is a propaganda video. Pure and simple. To rationalize it and defend it under the guise of understanding our enemy does not justify it's presence on this board.
Everyone knows Mathloom has an agenda about this stuff. It is not surprising that he posted it, and then tried to shift the conversation. This is his M.O. DD
I thought Mathloom was pretty clear he did not agree with them and does not share their vision for Saudi Arabia. I don't know why the video should be censored or why Mathloom should censor himself for the integrity (or whatever) of this board. Understanding AQ objectives is important. Sure, if they gained power in Saudi Arabia, they would set new, more ambitious goals. That doesn't make understanding AQ's motivations useless.
I would have added "continued claim to victimhood to lay all responsibility on the West for the state of the Middle East and to justify past and future atrocities against anyone who does not support their ideology."
