Originally posted by Sitting Bull
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Is American or Western foreign policy responsible for the anarchy in Libya
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Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are creeping up on everybody quickly when it comes to regional influence and military spending. The KSA has the fourth highest defense budget in the world in 2014; together with their U.A.E. allies they accounted for about $86 billion in military spending according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. To put that in perspective that's almost as much as Russia officially spent, more than India, Turkey and Israel put together and a good chunk of it is spent on aircraft.
The Gulf Arabs claim to be leading the fight against Islamic extremism yet are leaving ISIS alone the most part, other than busting recruitment centers in their own country. Certainly some of this air power would be welcome against ISIS positions.
Can they be a difference-maker in Libya? Without co-ordinated ground attacks by anti-Islamists, aerial bombardment will achieve little in the way of influencing the outcome.
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Originally posted by excurmudgeon View PostI don't believe there is an answer to this question. "Arab Spring" was misread by the West as a grass roots turn toward democracy.
I certainly remember me stating that there were significant signs that it wasn't a rush for democracy and that it was being managed by other vested interests.
unfort there's a tendency for talking head academics to spin outcomes and ignore the meaningful data
and I wasn't the only one on here voicing concerns about excess enthusiasm and a need to temper wishful thinking with the reality of regional politics
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