well, I have always believed that alliances are as stable as you make them to be. I would agree that historically, the alliance between the US and England is more stable, but that really depends on your perspective. Not so long ago ( in a historic sense ) the two nations were enemies, now they are allies, even "friends" as you call them.lowing wrote:
Whoa whoa easy Tex. LOL ...I never brought race or religion into this. Since just before the turn of the last century England and the US has covered each others back in times of crisis. the war in Iraq is not popular right now but England is standing by her friends. All I am saying is the alliegance with Islamic countries are very fragile and can change with the blowing wind. Not 25 yrs ago Iran was a "friend" and Iraq was the enemy. Now we are trying to help Iraq and Iran is the enemy. In the 80s the US was "allied" with the mujahadeen and wit hSadam. It is a very unstable region and alligences are as good as the moment and nothing more.B.Schuss wrote:
well, maybe you can tell me the difference between "true" alliances and those that arise from strategical needs ?lowing wrote:
the Pakistani US alliance, is the same as the US Soviet Union alliance was in WW2. that was only an alliance in the sense that they both had a greater threat to deal with than each other. Stalin Churchill and Roosevelt sat together and discussed war plans in Tehran in 1943 but hey, the Soviets were not true allies. And only in speeches and public appearances were they considered as such. Pakistan is not truly allied to the US the same as England for example.
What quality does England have that it is a "true" ally ? What quality does Pakistan lack ? Are british lifes worth more than Pakistani lifes ?
I am sorry, but all I see here is a classical double-standard, somewhere along the lines of: "you know, they are our allies in the war on terror, but they are not really allies since they are not good christians. Their lifes are worth shit, which is why we don't really care when some of them die accidentally in one of our airstrikes. I mean, who really cares, they are just a bunch of stinkin' muslims and they probably support Al Quaeda anyway..."
Of course, I am just guessing here, no offense...
So why should it be impossible to make true allies, maybe even friends in the middle east ?
Good alliances can stabilize a region. And I believe the US is there to do just that. You think you can do that without true allies down there ?
I guess what I am trying to say is that you need to make new friends in the middle east if you want to stabilize the region on a long-term basis. Changing your strategy in foreign politics for the region every 20 years or so has obviously not achieved that.
What I am worried about though is that some in the US administration might think that islamic nations can never be "true" allies or even friends with the US or other western nations, because of the cultural differences.
And I believe that's what you implied....