Why is Assad evil but the Saudi regime "good friends"?

[kentuckyklira]

Honestly, Assad´s regime is/was certainly way more adept to the "western" way of life than Saudi-Arabia´s ever was. Women were, GASP, even allowed out of the house without being veiled and, double GASP, they were even allowed to drive cars (we might want to argue the virtues of this but that´s a different matter). You could actually drink beer in Syria and you would never risk becoming witness to a public beheading.

But, for some reason still unclear to me, the freedom loving friends of human rights and democracy, aka the royal family of Saudi-Arabia are our "friends and allies" while secular Assad who has never had any ever so remote ties to any mentionable terrorists is such an evil guy!

I´d really love to have this explained by the US administration, or, if they´re busy, the British or even my own German one will do! If all else fails, the United Nations might help me with my predicament!

[Nitro Express]

Syria has it's own bank. It's not part of the Bank of International Settlements system. Syria is key real estate if you want to run gas and oil pipelines to Europe. Syria is allies with Iran and Russia.

It's all politics. If Assad remained the same but served US interests he would be a great guy. Simple as that. It's all how you are positioned on the grand geopolitical chess board. What rules the middle east is violence. Not democracy. The only people who can hold it together there are dictators. Even the so called democratic Israel is ran by a bunch of thugs.

It's not about civil rights or being decent. It's if you serve US interests. Saddam Hussain was our guy until he fell out of favor with the US establishment. It's not like he all a sudden changed and became a thug. Saddam was torturing people when he was our allie against the evil and diabolical Iran.

[kentuckyklira]

Syria has it's own bank. It's not part of the Bank of International Settlements system. Syria is key real estate if you want to run gas and oil pipelines to Europe. Syria is allies with Iran and Russia.

It's all politics. If Assad remained the same but served US interests he would be a great guy. Simple as that. It's all how you are positioned on the grand geopolitical chess board. What rules the middle east is violence. Not democracy. The only people who can hold it together there are dictators. Even the so called democratic Israel is ran by a bunch of thugs.

It's not about civil rights or being decent. It's if you serve US interests. Saddam Hussain was our guy until he fell out of favor with the US establishment. It's not like he all a sudden changed and became a thug. Saddam was torturing people when he was our allie against the evil and diabolical Iran.

Israel is about as "democratic" as South Africa was in the days of Apartheid. Imagine some Scandinavians annexing parts of Canada because a collection of thousand year old fairy tales told them that was their god-given right and establishing a regime where you´re only a first class citizen if you believe in Thor and Odin! But as long as they side with the USA they´re OK!

And don´t even let me start on the "good friends and allies" Saudi-Arabia!

[Nickdfresh]

Honestly, Assad´s regime is/was certainly way more adept to the "western" way of life than Saudi-Arabia´s ever was. Women were, GASP, even allowed out of the house without being veiled and, double GASP, they were even allowed to drive cars (we might want to argue the virtues of this but that´s a different matter). You could actually drink beer in Syria and you would never risk becoming witness to a public beheading.

But, for some reason still unclear to me, the freedom loving friends of human rights and democracy, aka the royal family of Saudi-Arabia are our "friends and allies" while secular Assad who has never had any ever so remote ties to any mentionable terrorists is such an evil guy!

I´d really love to have this explained by the US administration, or, if they´re busy, the British or even my own German one will do! If all else fails, the United Nations might help me with my predicament!

Actually, Assad had ties to Hezbollah and fucked around in Lebanon quite a bit and used them as a bit of a servant state...

[guitard]

What rules the middle east is violence.

And the driver behind much of the violence is the Shia/Sunni divide.

[kentuckyklira]

Actually, Assad had ties to Hezbollah and fucked around in Lebanon quite a bit and used them as a bit of a servant state...

The political organization Hezbollah is only considered "terrorist" by Israel, the USA an Canada. I´m German so I´lln stick to my claim!