Opinion of Saudi Arabia

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

I love the landscapes, especially around holy cities, though I love mid-east landscapes generally speaking. They managed to make beautiful modern buildings too, though certainly with kinda enslaved workers.

They're kinda racketing all people who wanna go in one of the 2 holy cities.

I find the regime, of course, awful.

Possibly on the edge to become an actual anti-western power, on the short to middle term, from political echoes I had from there.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Possibly on the edge to become an actual anti-western power, on the short to middle term, from political echoes I had from there.

Your echoes are quite wrong.

Because of political elite more than population. Also, short to middle term, and personally I think rather major political events would have to occur in the region for it to be possible, no matter whether that would today be accurate, I wouldn't ignore such a possibility.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Possibly on the edge to become an actual anti-western power, on the short to middle term, from political echoes I had from there.

Your echoes are quite wrong.

Because of political elite more than population. Also, short to middle term, and personally I think rather major political events would have to occur in the region for it to be possible, no matter whether that would today be accurate, I wouldn't ignore such a possibility.

The elite, the royal family, is large but the majority is pro-western. Those who aren't, like Prince Marsal, are paid to shut up. The Saudi urban class is more and more well-off, and disillusioned with anti-western movements though saying they're all pro-western hacks would be wrong. The majority favours the current situation, which amounts to being pro-western. The government cracks down with an iron hand on those opposed to the regime, and it has proven to be successful. At the same time, it keeps the urban classes happy and quiet with some reformist moves. Trust me, I lived in the country for over 10 years, so I know the actual situation there quite well.

A move against the current setup is a possibility, since anything is possible in the region, but it is very unlikely at least in the short to middle term. As long as the anti-western movement is radical and oppressed, it is quasi-impossible.

The facts that you can carry out are always worthy. According to what you say all protests have more or less been 'bought' by one way or an other, and that suits with the echoes I had, from guys of which it is the job to study this region by traveling there and listening to all kind of people there, elite and population, they don't speak of political maneuvers or protests, they speak of what people tell them, of the dialogs they have there, that's all.

The 2 biggest issues being of course the outcome in Iran, and the developments in Israel/Palestine.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The 2 biggest issues being of course the outcome in Iran, and the developments in Israel/Palestine.

Those issues carry relatively little weight in the Saudi mainstream, all things considered. Partly there's lack of interest by the middle sectors and there's government censorship on major foreign issues.

I can't speak for the rural areas well, and nobody can, but the Saudi middle sector and especially those who work for or close to the government are pure capitalists. Their only worry is personal gain of some sort, with limited interest in other issues except when it threatens their position.

Well, as I said in the beginning I speak in case of major events concerning these issues. Israel/Palestine is more for the middle/long term concerning the impact it could have, but, Al Jazeera is censored there??

Iran is the short term issue, and according to what could happen there it could have direct big consequences on KSA, on several levels.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Intelligent people wouldn't tolerate such a regime

Well, yes, each population is responsible for its regime, the population tolerates this regime, which outside of cultural particularisms can take quite nasty forms apparently. Things can't change from one day to an other, then I hope the population really tries to change it.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

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Haha....

Excellent posts, Hashemite. Nothing more to say.

Some disrespect foreign groups, but never an individual to their face.

Cool, you surely have cool genes there. Lucky.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

How are you any more qualified to know this than I? And I never said Middle-Easterners or Muslims were less intelligent, I said indoctrinated Muslims are ignorant. If they weren't the minority, how does a Government like Saudi Arabia's survive without uprisings?

Just, because I defended a similar point of view, when I say that a population is always responsible for its regime I don't necessarily mean that it shares its views, it just that it lets power to it.

The German population has certainly responsibilities to have let the power to nazis, does it mean a majority of Germans were nazis? You can't watch a society and say that individuals are like that because a society is like that, individuals and societies are just 2 different things. Something you seem to assume when you say any US citizen would be cool with foreigners. You can say 'I think most of US citizens would be cool with foreigners' but never use things like 'never' to speak about it, then you wouldn't have have had the genes comment from me.