another reason to stay away from saudi arabia...

[Wrathborne]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/20/saudi.rape.victim/index.html
------

A year or so back I posted an article on a Saudi woman who was raped by a group of men and when she sought leagal help she was sentenced to 90 lashes...Well now that sentence has been increased to 200 lashes...Because she spoke with the media about what happened.

I know that Saudi Arabia is our 'ally' but when their leagal system punishes the rape victim, and not the rapist and punishes her further for speaking with the media...I really cant say I want these people as an ally.

I'm well aware that the court system falls under Islamic law as well and all, but in general what about human rights?

Countries like this and China are notorious for their lack of human rights and yet we still call them 'allies' and stand by them.

The US as well as many European countries all have Human rights given to its citizens, but why do we considar countries that dont have basic human rights allies? Yes I know there is a lot of business and interests tied up in China and Saudi Arabia, but come on. This is total bullshit.

Turning a blind eye for oil and cheap labor just isnt right.

This is something thats been on my mind for a while and this article reminded me about these thoughts I've had.

I know there are god knows how many hundred or thousand of similer cases of whats happened to this woman that have been kept quiet.

With shit like this going on the middle east is just gonan continue fucking themselves adn dragging the rest of us with them.

[JerkyPuck]

Yeah, I totally get what you mean. Then they spout off some bullshit reason about giving Iraqis freedom as an excuse for us to send our troops in there while we stand by our allies that do this retarded shit. It's all such a lie.

[Darkgod]

Was there ever a reason To Visit?

[Searcher]

Wrathborne, have you ever considered sending these very sentiments to your US congressman?
I do it all the time, they may get annoyed with it but they can either work to change these things or suck my ass.
The problem is that not enough people do it.
I don't know if you do it or not but, any person who has time to bitch about a subject they feel strongly about on UHM surely has time to send that passionate argument to our policy makers.

[choptop2]

Where they will simply click the delete button after sending a generic thanks, Your Name for writing note.

[Luris Blear]

Well, here are our choices.

Diplomacy. Work with them with a give-and-take economic policy and watch them slowly evolve into civilized society. China may keep screwing up on this front, but they are slowly creeping more freedoms into the peoples' lives.

Ignore them. Let 'em kill their women and religious minorities.

Sanctions. Stop any money from getting into the country so as to actively help kill their women and religious minorities.

Liberate them by force.

Any action taken will be either viewed as too limp-wristed or too heavy handed by the internet's armchair quarterbacks. Or, to return a taste of this medicine, Kofi and Chirac weren't ignorant of the Food for Oil abuse, but the Democrats are perfectly happy to be aligned with them.

See? We can all hate each other or we can look for solutions.

Edit: Props to Searcher for actually proposing one! I may disagree with the politics, but never with the willingness to act on your beliefs.

[Wrathborne]

I'm kind of with choptop on that suggestion. Politicians really dont give a fuck what we want until election year. Even though its election year now, I dont want to give these fuckers any new ground to 'support' for their parties campaigns.

And yet I am very conflicted to sit here and do nothing. thats the problem with being jaded, you really dont know if what you do is worth it as you know a lot of how the world works, more so on a negative scale though.

[Grendel]

Unfortunately, no one has the political will to push for any sort of sanctions against Saudi Arabia. Even if we did, the realities of economics and energy consumption means we have zero leverage with them, whatsoever.

[GruesomeDuece]

Unfortunately, no one has the political will to push for any sort of sanctions against Saudi Arabia. Even if we did, the realities of economics and energy consumption means we have zero leverage with them, whatsoever.

Translation: Rock and a hard place. Which is pretty much the way everything seems these days.

It sucks but I have to agree with Wrath and Chop. I would love to live in a country where I felt that my thoughts and concerns, when sent to a legislative figure, would be heard or even documented. People just don't believe that happens. Especially since I have received many "Thank you for showing your concern, support, etc. etc.," with some official seal on it. It's a really bad time when problems begin to expose other problems.