Difficult Diplomacy

One thing many of us wonder about is why we protect Saudi Arabia? Obviously they have plenty of oil so this makes them important to us, because we are the world’s biggest consumer of oil. This is true, but didn’t anyone notice the Saudi’s claiming victory for lowering the price of oil, not to benefit people but to crush the companies who get oil from shale and fracking? A lot of these companies are American and Canadian, so what happened hurt our national interest. Yet here we are claiming they are one of our closest allies even though according to news sources they still carry out beheadings, stoning and whippings with as many as 500 lashes being administered. Saudi Arabia is a country where women have few rights and yet we embrace them. We cite the same reasons for being against other countries in the Middle East. Obviously we have our agendas. When ISIS chops off heads it is terrorism, but when Saudi Arabia does it we look the other way.

What is the deal with Iran? Doesn’t it seem strange we are pursuing a nuclear deal with them on one hand and talking tough on the other? First of all we know some of our allies are totally against a nuclear deal with Iran, they want us to attack them and I think we all know who they are. The reasons for this are security and religion. The main religion in Iran is the Shi’a branch of Islam while most other countries in the area are dominated by the Sunni sect. They have their religious reasons to want to keep Iran out of the nuclear race. Another problem is Iranians are not Arabs. Israel while not a Muslim country, is terrified they will be the first target of a nuclear bomb if one is created in Iran. The pressure from these countries on the US is tremendous and if we are truly trying to prevent more nuclear proliferation I am surprised.

China is flexing new muscles and is exerting its power in the South China Sea and this is a threat to its neighbors. According to some news articles, which you can never be sure are correct, China has let us know in no uncertain terms if we interfere they will defend themselves. We already knew China would not let itself be pushed around so what was the purpose of this statement? We have been protecting Taiwan since 1949 and the People’s Republic of China (Red China) have vowed take back Taiwan and has never wavered from this promise. As they get stronger they are beginning to feel maybe they can build themselves up to the point they will be so strong we won’t dare to try and stop that reunification. Taking over the South China Sea could be the first step. China needs oil and the area is said to be quite rich in oil and gas. There are 7.5 billion barrels of oil reserves known about in the region and China would love to get this for themselves. If you haven’t noticed lately, China has been busy developing what it calls aircraft carrier killing missiles and this is being done for our benefit, because no other country had the carrier fleet we have.

North Korea just keeps working on developing more nukes and the rockets to carry them. Several times in the past North Korea wanted to meet directly with the United States. We have no diplomatic relations with that country. When President Obama was deciding if we should meet with North Korea they decided to conduct a missile test which destroyed the opportunity. We said they had violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions and urged them to refrain from such further actions. South Korea desires to have North Korea rejoin them so they both could become one country. Unfortunately has anyone ever seen a dictator who was happy to give up their power, I haven’t and with one family controlling North Korea for decades it doesn’t seem this will happen soon. The next step may be North Korea selling nukes to terrorists groups and if this happens I can’t see how the world can sit back and watch.

Iraq is a country we destabilized. We claimed that Saddam Hussein had gotten weapons of mass destruction and we had to invade, twice. We eventually killed Saddam, and deconstructed their army, which was one of the biggest land forces in the world. It had been at war with Iran for many years and it was a case of Shi’a verses Sunni and this war could have gone one for many more years. Destroying Iraq created a vacuum in the region and Iran was more than glad to be able to spread their wings since they no longer had the resistance of a major army against them. ISIS formed and moved into Iraq and has taken over some major cities and our response was the Iraqi Army was not brave enough. What a bunch of hogwash. If we would not have invaded there would have been no ISIS, but even if there was, Iraq could have easily handled them. The Iraqi soldiers claim they didn’t have the ammunition or weapons we promised them and this is why they had to retreat. There has been a problem of weapons not getting to those who need them. It is too early to tell, but it could be a case of corruption or just plain bad logistics.

Afghanistan is a country of hardships. There are many natural disasters, widespread poverty and a lack of food in many areas. As we all know we invaded this country and President Obama said, “This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity.” Why was it necessary? It is said we invaded to fight the Taliban who were giving sanctuary to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden after 9/11. CNN reported on September 21, 2001 the Taliban did not refuse to let us know where bin Laden was, but stated they wanted proof he was involved in the 9/11 attacks. It seems ben Laden denied having anything to do with the 9/11 attacks and the Taliban felt he didn’t do it. Could it be if we had provided proof of the guilt of ben Laden he would have been turned over to us and if this is true why didn’t we provide that proof? I leave this answer to your imagination.

There are many other countries which are problems for us, but could it be if we really wanted to we could solve at least some of these problems diplomatically without weakening ourselves? Maybe it is time for some of our treaties and agreements to be revised. The world is a different place than when they were agreed to. What other country in the world has appointed itself policeman for the entire planet? The answer is NONE.