Submitted by Rubicon (United States), Jan 27, 2009 at 01:49
Obviously, the Saudi's have made threats before, as have numerous other Arab or Islamic nations. Add a few western nations into the mix who like to join on any bandwagon that excoriates America & assigns blame to her for the world's ills, past, present, future, real & imagined, and what you have are opportunists who represent totalitarian & socialist nations that envy our successes & hate Israel's success at making their nation into an Eden where previously sand appeared to be the national product.
In the past, such alarmist comments caused some consternation here & after some time, the frantic responses devolved into reality. Posturing by vilifying the west & especially America & great Britain, has become sport in many of these nations. Vilifying Israel is simply required if any despot wishes to remain in power over the peoples of their own nations who they have been oppressing for decades.
The difficulty for America is, when are the threats really serious? Alarmist babbling creates a level of distrust or unbelief because the catastrophic results never seem to materialize. This same level of distrust is finally materializing over the Global Warming &/or Climate Change alarmism we have been subjected to over the past few years. One cannot predict doom that never happens, while latching hold of any other disconnected event at all & try to attach it to your original flawed theory, & expect a level of trust to remain. Al Gore & company have told us what they say we can expect if we fail to subscribe, hook, line, & sinker, to their alarm on that issue. Yet a huge cadre of highly qualified & respected scientific types, even though the media rarely mentions these scientific types even exists, have all come out denouncing the alarmist predictions the people of the world have been subjected to over just the past ten years alone. Al Gore has been blowing smoke & getting away with it because no one has taken him to task publicly. That has not happened because Mr. Gore's appearances have all been carefully choreographed to avoid any hint of opposition or doubt or suspicion, that his "theory" is pure bunk. Slowly though, his alarmist sky is falling predictions are being revealed as the hocus pokus they really are. CO2 is NOT a pollutant, nor is it causing the world to die, & in fact CO2 is an essential element in keeping mankind fed, flowers blooming, trees & plants growing, & a climate even more can live in & enjoy.
Anyway, so long as the threats remain just so much lip service so these despots can retain their power over their own peoples, so what?! BUT! If we begin to see these threats materializing, even in segments or a piecemeal approach, we must be prepared to stand firm on our convictions & positions, while trying to diplomatically reveal to these despots the folly of their actions. We must also start to mount our own PR campaign efforts that discredit the accusations & attacks many have launched against Israel & America. In the final analysis, these threats & at America & Israel, with a few others connected occasionally, like Great Britain.
As America's financial situation degrades or continues to weaken with the burden of significant debt our politicians & special interest groups seem hell bent to saddle us with, we must be wary that the blustering of petty tyrants does not turn into real threats followed up with actions taken against us, even if those actions are taken by even just a piecemeal approach. A slow or incremental degrading of our situations, can be just as dangerous as full fledged attacks. A good PR program on our parts can discredit many of those attacks, help to one day justify any response we are compelled to take. Such a program would also foment a credible level of doubt among those who previously had only the feckless word of political & media sycophantic allies of our attackers to base their opinions on.
I think my point is, one day someone like the Saudi prince will actually mean what they say when they take to attacking us on any issue. We know the attacks on Israel are real. We have every reason to suspect the attacks on America will also one day be just as real. If we are in a position of weakness, people like this Saudi prince will become vile opportunists in a nano second or less!
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