• TinSoldier said on May 03, 2007....

  I think it's a shame that we aren't as friendly with the Arabs as we used to be, but it's been a long time coming really. Remember the oil embargoes of the '70s and early '80s?
  
  They're pissed at us, sometimes for legitimate reasons and sometimes for not so legitimate reasons. Unfortunately when you start talking global politics, regular ethics and morality no longer seem to apply. It's all about national advantage.
  
  Some people have wanted to put more pressure on Saudi Arabia since the 9/11 attacks, since most of the attackers were Saudi nationals. While the Saudis have cracked down on extremists in their own country, and have tried to assure Americans that they really are on our side, they don't have much moral authority themselves with regards to the way they run their own country -- regarding civil rights for anyone who is not a male natural-born Saudi Arab.
  

• sparks78 said on May 08, 2007....

  Hello Tin,
  
  I agree and accept your point.  I spent a year in Saudi in the early 1950's.  Things may have changed some but the point about the civil rights issue in that country was true back then.
  
  I was in an Air Sea Rescue outfit in the Air Force and we would fly over the desert and while looking down below I saw an Arab male riding a donkey and about 100 feet or so was a female trotting along as fast as she could, carrying a bundle on her head trying to keep up with him.
  
  Another time while one of our sea planes was practicing landings and takeoffs in the Persian Gulf, I was assigned to the rescue crash boat (a converted PT boat) and before  we left the dock at Al Khobar, we saw and old sailing boat loaded with 15 or so young girls with their masks and hooded shawls covering them.  They were giggling and carrying on and pointed at me, I guess I must have been a sight for them in my swimming suit and army combat boots.
  
  The pilot of our crash boat was an Arab who could speak and understand some English and we asked him where the boat load of young girls were headed.  He said they were sold into slavery and were being shipped to some place in Southern Africa.  A baby girl wasn't worth much to a family while a son could go out and earn money for the family.  So many young girls aged 12 thru the teens were sold.
  

• sparks78 said on May 08, 2007....

  Hello Tin,
  
  I agree and accept your point.  I spent a year in Saudi in the early 1950's.  Things may have changed some but the point about the civil rights issue in that country was true back then.
  
  I was in an Air Sea Rescue outfit in the Air Force and we would fly over the desert and while looking down below I saw an Arab male riding a donkey and about 100 feet or so behind him was a female trotting along as fast as she could, carrying a bundle on her head trying to keep up with him.
  
  Another time while one of our sea planes was practicing landings and takeoffs in the Persian Gulf, I was assigned to the rescue crash boat (a converted PT boat) and before  we left the dock at Al Khobar, we saw and old sailing boat loaded with 15 or so young girls with their masks and hooded shawls covering them.  They were giggling and carrying on and pointed at me, I guess I must have been a sight for them in my swimming suit and army combat boots.
  
  The pilot of our crash boat was an Arab who could speak and understand some English and we asked him where the boat load of young girls were headed.  He said they were sold into slavery and were being shipped to some place in Southern Africa.  A baby girl wasn't worth much to a family while a son could go out and earn money for the family.  So many young girls aged 12 thru the teens were sold.

• jerusalem said on Dec 16, 2007....

  hi spark

  i think the problem is the zionist lobby how makes the american policy  just servant to the israeli goals even they are non justic.

  regards

  the nile wise

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