scot47

Anyone remember this ? I was in Jeddah when it happened. My Saudi students came to my office to say how awful they thought it was.
Anyway. an arrest after 19 years.

Saudi Arabia 'holds suspect in Khobar Towers bombing' - BBC News

Irishbeekeeper

http://britishexpats.com/forum/sand-...n-deal-864133/
and to prove my point :
SMS tips led to Khobar bomber arrest | GulfNews.com
I think he was definitely 'given up'!

Boomhauer

" given up " ; that reminds me of the many times Pakistan 'gives' intel to help the US/UK/Allies.

scot47

That is one conflict that is not ending anytime soon. Did the administrators of the Raj really think Partition would solve anything ?

Irishbeekeeper

yep, something exactly like that
and your point is?

No but in hindsight the Raj has made quite a lot of other monumental mistakes as well havent they?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine

Boomhauer

No point really, it was just something that popped in my head when you mentioned 'given'.
The US really should reanalize their Allies in the MidEast and South Asia. Atleast there seems to be a rapproachment with Iran, which is overdue and welcome cause it will be a stick in Saudi's craw.

DXBtoDOH

Like most of history it's a bugger if you do and a bugger if you don't decision.

If anything, the British were pretty good at keeping sectarian violence under control if only because they served as a common focus point for everyone's rebellions/anger/movement. So it's not surprising once the British withdrew the sectarian violence and divisions erupted.

scot47

Best advice is to keep out of other peoples' territory.

DXBtoDOH

And when has anyone ever learned that throughout history?

It's always too easy to make such a statement. History is, if anything, far more complicated to boil down to these easy sweeping moral judgements we too easily make these days.

After all, just look at the middle east!

scot47

Avoid the kneejerk reaction "We must do something about the situation in Country X. Send in the troops !"

Millhouse

An area best left alone.

DXBtoDOH

And when we don't do something they send a few million migrants in our direction or a handful of terrorists to blow up a major building.

See. History is complicated.

The failure of the modern west is the assumption that humans are, at core, logical and rational beings.

We are not. Not even in the West. Just look at Mr. Corbyn.

As long as too many people in the West persist in taking this attitude we are doomed to utter failure in our relationship with the rest of the world, and perhaps even the very failure of the West in the long run.

scot47

Next time there is trouble, let the Swedes or Uruguayans go and sort it out. Time for us to learn that Britain is not "Top Nation" any more. The Empire is over. If the USA have issues we should not get involved.

DXBtoDOH

The only people who ever talk about the empire are the loony left. I think the rest of us got it a long time ago

Like I said, it's a damned if you do and a damned if you don't situation.

scot47

Blair and the others should never have intervened in Iraq. That was the beginning of the meltdown in the Middle East. Why was there intervention there but none in Ruanda or the Solomon Islands ?

Blair has blood on his hands. Will Chilcot tell us that ? What can we expect from the Establishment investigating the Establishment ?