Al-Khobar Killings
 

My thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends of the people killed in AlKhobar this morning. :(


Mutt.

It sure starts to look that time to leave has arrived...
Blues

Personal view is that the Bush Blair team should leave the political stage

The so called war on terror is not working and for the common man on the ground this is the true reality of what their policy generates.

Engineer,

Why do you say that? To leave more room to those barbaric guys to legitimate terror and finally recognize Al Queda as a winner?
:mad: :mad:

Engineer,

It has nothing to do with UK policy, a German national working for Saudi Arabian Airlines was gunned down in Riyadh last week. These terrorists want to destabilize the country, they dont ask for passports before they kill people. :(


Mutt.

Terroism doesnt choose who to kill, they choose what makes political leaders tick. Obviously its working, but at the death of innocent workers.. I would admitt, all govts are the same. They want power and they are playing with fire at the moment..

You may think things are bad now. Give in (capitulate) to terroism and things will be 10 times as bad, believe me.

Well in the first Gulf War my friend (from Greece who was living in Kuwait City) had his home invaded by Iraqi's. But was not killed because he produced a passport saying he was Greek. These are terrorists they work differently. They take no hostages and show no mercy and I don't think the US or UK should either. Why follow the Geneva convention when your enemy isn't even part of it!

Because we are better than them..........

Mad Dog,
We are of course better than them but sometimes that isn't enough.

These people are extremists and maybe the only way to beat them is to be more extreme than them, clearly us playing by the rules and hoping that we will prevail isn't working.
Personally I've found that allowing people to preach hatred against the nation that gave them sanctuary, as happens in London, utterly ridiculous. I don't care about all the lefties who bang on about free speech, these people and any who support them should be locked up.............

:*

Mutt,

What's the mood like around Saudia City at the moment? Is everyone gearing up to leave, or do expats still feel relatively safe in Jeddah?

I never cease to be amazed by the ignorance of people to the situation in the Middle East - but all feel free to give their expert knowledge on how to deal with it.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, the current policy of the Bush administration is doing more to support recruitment and de stabalise the region than Al Queda could ever have hoped for.

The American's and Britis fought a fine war but the politicians appeared to have no game plan as to what they would do afterwards.

Until the Americans get to grips with the real problems in the Middle East and stop pandering to the Israeli Lobby then little will change.

Ask yourself just how desperate you would have to be to strap explosives to your chest and blow yourself apart? I do not condone it or claim to understand why they do it, but it does make me ask the question why??

As for the Geneva convention, it is not clear to me that EITHER side are sticking to it............

Anyway, enough of my inane ramblings, i've only been here 12 years, what do I know.

Not good for Saudi, since 60% of those working in the oil industry there are foreign.

Only a matter of time...
 

The problems in Saudi have been festering since they day it was conceived, and if you know your history books you will know who installed Ibn Saud and the House of Saud as we know it know today. For those who don't know its worth reading up on as a lot of the anti Western sentiment that exists today was a result of the manipulation by the Brits and the US of the politics in this region, and importantly the nuts and bolts of Osama Bin Laden's grievences.

Know before anyone bleats that I am sympathising with the militants, think again I am merely providing some background to the current crisis. The way Osama and his thugs have dealt with the problems are of course disproportionate.

The Saudi attacks have been going on in one form or another for decades, not always on such a scale and certainly not always against western interests, but certainly the opression that the Saudi Government has placed on their society has at times come back and bitten them on butts.

The militants are now using the current crisis in the Middle East and its global implications, to maximise the effectiveness of their campaign and this recent tradgedy will not be the end of it.

:(

Can these attacks appear in other gulf countries in the future?

I mean Dubai,Qatar,Bahrein

Anywhere, anytime, anyplace
 

As the world found out, the arm of terrorism can reach anywhere in the world at anytime.

There are travel warnings and expat resident warnings active for all of the Middle East countries issued by most western embassies, the most recent from Oz specific to UAE. Sometimes they are a kneejerk to a particular event, but often they are based on information provided by the relevent government INTEL gathering mechanisms or by government sponsored global security groups.

It always pays to be a little careful and keep a low profile regardless of where you are in the Middle East at the moment.

:ooh:

desert_knight

Read your post with interest. However as US President GW put it and I quote "you are either with us or against us". When you come down off the fence, which side will you come down on?

Forget about rules. There are no rules in war, when an enemy will not ware a uniform. They should be treated as spies, pure and simple.

Well UAE has already declared that it is against what these terrorists are doing because it is against the islamic teachings. Truth is many terrorists sought by the US were originally from the UAE. So in my opinion UAE should be the safest city in the world (don't know if it is or not) I heard Bin Laden was in Dubai a while ago or is he still hiding in cave 23?:)

Bugg Smasher,

Enjoying a long vacation, havent seen the place in six weeks. But i certainly do not believe that people are running from Jeddah.

SV City, like many of the compounds in Jeddah are protected by armed military. I'm therefore surprised that this wasnt the case in Khobar.

Unfortunately the American killed by related to a colleague :(


MD11Flyer,

Thought that the US were looking for Saudi nationals, not UAE nationals.

Mutt.

Unfortunately this simple statement strikes right at the heart of the "sit on the fence" mentality that makes up the foundation of society, politics and economics of the entire Middle East.