LoveUniHateExams
Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Lebanon are all independent Arab countries.
If I've missed something, could someone explain it to me ...
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Independent? The U.S. Military casts a shadow over them all.
Who can come and go - when and where?
Ah, what would being INDEPENDENT actually mean to tribes with differing religious loyalties and blood relations?
Being interfered with (especially by INFIDELS) would ruin any sense of independence, certainly.
Tribal leaders acted at whim throughout history and incursions and blood-letting widened or narrowed occupied land.
For Arabs, it is the LANGUAGE which unites them as a people.
The Koran is said to be written in God's perfect language (Arabic) and it strongly coheres and even binds while simultaneously drives a wedge between Arabs and non-Arabic speakers.
The Ottoman Turks, for example who spoke (duh) Turkish, and Kurds (see topic subject) spoke Kurdish.
This makes them "other" and marks them the way Jehovah's Witnesses mark JW's who question the authority of the Governing Body.
At the Versailles Conference, Great Britain and France IMPOSED borders already historically pre-established by current residents regardless of affiliations or blood feuds.
But - too bad for them!
T.E.Lawrence performed admirably in "efforts" to point out how destructive an act this would be.
He drew up reasonable demarcations and tribal definitions but was completely over-ruled after a pretended respectful "listen."
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Who are the Arabs?
The SAUD family and SAUDI dynasty didn't get along with the HUSSEIN family and its dynasty, refusing to join the Arab Revolt "for freedom."
(Back and forth these struggles were ongoing with the population, as a whole born, reared, and dying not knowing anything but turmoil and civil unrest. Don't fret - It was "normal.")
The TURKS imposed a Suzerainty on Arabs:
"Suzerainty is any relationship in which one region or polity controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy."
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As T.E.Lawrence had predicted, neither French nor Brits would succeed at gaining any cooperation with their newly named states and colonies even after pretending to let them run things and backing them up in internecine battles.
The French finally threw up their hands, Great Britain shrugged and vanished.
A struggle in 1927 caused another big shift as Wahhabi insurgents succeeded in transplanting their culture and rule and kicking out the Saudi family (which had, in turn, already kicked out the Hussein dynasty when Britain stopped supporting them.)
IS ANYBODY INDEPENDENT YET?
Imagine how disgusted Great Britain and France were in 1938 when enormous oil reserves were discovered under the Saudi dynasty. Talk about broken promises, ill-will, mistrust!
Ahhhh, but the United States was suddenly all flowers and kisses and pillow whispers about defending the Saudi dynasty from all aggressors! President F.D.R. and Abdul Azziz became engaged to married politically aboard the U.S.S. Quincy and the honeymoon has lasted all these years!
Did Arabs now transform into Arabians?
Notice the map has been branded as belonging to the Saudi dynasty: Saudi Arabia and not just Arabia. It's like TRUMP TOWER.
Oh yes. Make no mistake about who has BIG AMERICANS in their back pocket.
Under President Nixon, the agreement to become Saudi's well-armed nuclear protector led to Saudi agreement to ONLY SELL OIL if it were purchased in American dollars (called Petro-Dollars) because Nixon was running out of actual gold reserves enough to back U.S. currency. By going off the gold standard, the currency has ever since ENTIRELY depended on PETRO_$$ sales.
After 1945 and the end of WWII, the unrest in the Middle East tempted the U.S. time and again to imagine they could keep a "balance of power" going by covert meddling in local political leadership.
(How? Nobody had ever been up to that impossible task?)
One huge catastrophe was the U.S. insistence on selling arms and even nuclear weapons to PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE: the State of Israel.
So, what does it mean to be an INDEPENDENT STATE in the Middle East? If you are Iran and want your Ayatollah to rule the political and religious state with Sharia law BUT the U.S. has kicked out the democratically elected fella - what is THAT? Independence?
The SHAH was in our back pocket - but - alas! Uprising - bye bye.
Was that Independence?
If you are a Tyrant like Saddam Hussein and everybody is terrified of you - citizens of Iraq will suffer while the United States merely gives lip-service to the "ain't it awful" hell on earth. But - if Saddam goes after Kuwait OIL -- suddenly shock and awe appear and the balance of power (such as it is) is pulled apart at the seams.
Is that Independence?
American troops are deployed and despised as Infidels no matter how much "help for your own good" they think is necessary.
The U.S. policy is sugar coated with humanitarian concern but the 150,000 violent deaths seem to be "necessary."
There is incredible hypocrisy here - but our men and women in uniform are told it is their duty and they obey orders.
"The United States is home to five of the world’s 10 largest defense contractors, and American companies account for 57 percent of total arms sales by the world’s 100 largest defense contractors."
Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor in the world, is estimated to have had $44.9 billion in arms sales in 2017 through deals with governments all over the world. The company drew public scrutiny after a bomb it sold to Saudi Arabia was dropped on a school bus in Yemen, killing 40 boys and 11 adults."
Half the population of the U.S. is against gun violence. Now isn't that ironic?
OUR TROOPS are deployed:
Iraq
Afghanistan
Oman Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- Kuwait
- Bahrain:
- Qatar
Who wants our help? The Kurds, you say?