Missing Emirati princess 'planned escape for seven years'
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
We're playing semantics here, aren't we? Of course it's a dictatorship.
This point is still a mystery to me. If it's always been about oil, then the US is currently the largest oil producer. Why are we still relying on these countries for anything?? Is it leveraging their wealth for other investments?
Might be something to do with it. Their economies are not amongst the world's largest, but they have disproportionate power to spend for these reasons, AFAICT
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/11/if-saudi-oil-no-longer...
"Oil" means "lots of money". Why do capitalist nations work with extremely rich unethical countries? Well, we want some of their money.
And because "free trade!!" is a reasonable argument in the US, a whole web of conflicting motives has sprung up perpetuating trade... weapons manufacturers and fossil fuel infrastructure companies lobbying politicians for "jobs" (profit), citizens misled by simplified mainstream media, hawkish doves demanding stability for the people by supporting strong states, dovish hawks insisting on elimination of rebel forces, Europe's reliance on stability to avoid immigration crisis and dependency on Russian energy, huge foreign investments in the US economy (eg Silicon Valley), stability of international oil prices influencing stability of domestic revenue, religious tension and political lobbying (Israel)... on and on.
> About 100 countries produce crude oil. In 2017, 48% of the world's total crude oil production came from five countries:
> Russia — 13%
> Saudi Arabia — 13%
> United States — 12%
> Iraq — 6%
> Iran — 5%
Clearly a major producer, but not nearly enough to set the market price. And that's the key thing: it's a global market. Even if we set internal US policy to only consume US produced oil, we would still be affected by production of other country's because it's the global oil supply that affects the price of that oil.
For the first time since 1973, the United States is the world's largest producer of crude oil, according to preliminary estimates published on Wednesday by the Energy Department.
Texas is the epicenter of the shale boom. Production in the Permian Basin of West Texas has grown so much that in February the United States vaulted above Saudi Arabia for the first time in more than two decades, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
US output kept climbing in June and August, reaching nearly 11 million barrels per day. That nudged the United States ahead of Russia for the first time since February 1999, the EIA estimates.
The United States isn't expected to cede its crown any time soon. The EIA expects US oil production to stay ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia through 2019.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/12/investing/us-oil-production...
No one in this thread has claimed that the US is trying to set the market price of oil. Can you cite any author besides yourself who claims that the US foreign policy at any point in the last 15 years has been driven by a desire to keep oil cheap?
What grandparent probably meant was that for the first time in decades the US is on the verge of being able to produce all the oil it needs: today the combination of the US and Canada can produce all the oil the combination needs, and US production is increasing rapidly with the result that in a year or 2 US production by itself will suffice to meet all of the US's consumption needs.
The Dictator's Handbook [1] covers this in their chapter on foreign aid. TL; DR Democratically-elected leaders like dictatorships because it's easy to buy off dictators to achieve the electorate's foreign policy goals. Qatar lets us base with them for little compared to the diplomatic, economic and other concessions democracies require from the U.S. for such privileges. (Even near-moribund democracies like Pakistan's.)
Also, a sheikh kidnapping his own daughter is really bad, yet it is a far cry from invading other nations, as America, England and Russia do all the time.
More background to the story:
1. India returned the princess to protect strategic interests - https://thewire.in/diplomacy/india-returned-runaway-dubai-pr...
2. http://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/300318/kidnapped-dub...
3. Indian Prime Minister authorized the operation to seize her and return back to UAE - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/28...
Why India?! Western Europe, Japan and the United States have strong judicial systems. The EU, in particular, wouldn't require any pre-declarations to be filed prior to claiming asylum. The only advantage to India is being able to disappear, e.g. change names and retire to a remote village. Unfortunately, she doesn't appear to have taken advantage of that.
According to emirateswoman.com, shes being married off. I hope she gets another chance to escape to a more free life.
It is always easy to be smart after the fact, but to me that the naval officer thought through the escape to getting out of the country, but not what happens next. For him, a French citizen, getting out to a neutral country is the end. For her, a UAE citizen without any right to stay elsewhere, it is at best a midpoint.
He could have arranged for news coverage prior to the mission by discreetly talking to some high caliber journalists so they can prep coverage and he could have involved professionals (e.g., traffickers who move refugees and have global networks).
It's not even a full list
Still, your comment was unnecessarily ignorant and insulting; presumably there are people for who the UAE is more than the misdeeds of the ruling family; the fact that it isn't to us, is really our failing. Your post just wasn't very helpful.
And his point is that someone reduced the UAE and all its history and people to "what a fucked up country" then it's absolutely relevant. What about the destruction of the indians and native land, the going to war for OIL for the past 20 years and killing basically indiscriminately. Do I need to remind us of slavery? I'm a US citizen, but be prepared to take salt in the face if someone reduces your country to a sentence like that.
https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/127-the-crime-machine-...
My issue with the parent argument is simply that the UAE is so bad it makes even a screwed up system like that in many US cities look good.
IF YOU DOWNVOTE YOU NEED TO STATE WHY OTHERWISE WE JUST END UP WITH ONE SIDED DISCUSSION!
And I'm sure somebody will jump in here about how the U.S. has started all these wars and the UAE has not, but that's also a bullshit comparison because the UAE is not the world's superpower. The proper comparison, in that regard, is between the U.S. and previous world super powers, a comparison that comes out heavily in favor of the moral standing of the U.S.
And I downvoted you for not understanding that distractions hijack the conversation. A conversation about everything is too unfocused to be a useful conversation about anything. The topic here is Dubai; you're fine with it being hijacked into a conversation about the US justice system. I'm not OK with that. Let us talk about Dubai here; we'll talk about the US justice system plenty of other places.
Not everyone is good.
IE you have strong sacred long held beliefs that your female children are not independent, are your property. That you want the best for them, according to your beliefs and your customs, which you believe are right. That resorting to "tough love" to get wayward children on the right track is for their own good. A lot of folks would claim or deny they're hurting their children, it's their children who are being hurtful by being "disobedient", bringing dishonor, or rejecting the values on which they were raised. The list goes on and on, the rationalizations are enumerable. And even aside all that, some people just love exercising their authority over others and actively seek opportunities to do it to the maximum degree they possibly can.
It's pretty easy to rationalize cruelty as love. And everyone is the hero of their own story, so not always a lot of incentive to be objective or introspective about it.
Life is not a video game.
That a morally messed up judgement. Hearing something like that again, and again, I long stopped wondering why people in the West come to the situation you have now. Spirit, courage and integrity - you must have them!
if anything - it was a logistics mistake on his part - going to and making contact with Indian authorities (which would extradite back to UAE.)
He should have involved professional traffickers - they'd take her anywhere for $400K. Ideally to the closest USA embassy then make some public noise after they got there. If USA was the final destination anyway.
It was completely his failure to craft the operation, and allowing Indian board. Aside from that, would they fire on an American flagged vessel under a dubious tip off from a country with funny reputation if they were to run away from them?
And... man, you don't station anything like a whole brigade on a frigate.
Professional traffickers are unnecessary, she could escape to international waters and adopt a new identity as a tourist who wants to settle.