"You think I want to send my son to die in Kuwait?"

[KansDem]

...asks a senior Gulf official. He chuckles and adds, "We have our white slaves from America to do that."

Southeast Missourian January 4, 1991.

From the article--
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love...
William Butler Yeats, "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"

Explains Gulf War One and Two (the Iraq invasion), the Afghanistan occupation, and now the Syrian showdown...

[rdharma]

1. We won't be fooled again.......

Or will we?

[blkmusclmachine]

2. "White slaves from America"

[xocet]

3. Interesting....

Pat Buchanan apparently quotes a WSJ article:

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "White Slaves in the Persian Gulf," Wall Street Journal, January 7, 1991, p. A14.

It would be interesting to see the original source article.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. ....

Among our stated objectives are the defense of Saudi Arabia, the liberation of Kuwait and restoration of the royal family, and the establishment, in the president's phrase, of 'a stable and secure Gulf.' Pesumably these generous-hearted goals should win the cooperation, respect and gratitude of the locals. Indications are, to the contrary, that our involvement is increasing Arab contempt for the U.S.

In this newspaper a few days ago Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz described the reluctance of the Arabs to fight in their own defense. The Gulf States have a population almost as large as Iraq's but no serious armies and limited inclination to raise them. Why should they? The Journal quotes a senior Gulf Official: 'You think I want to send my teen-aged son to die for Kuwait?' He chuckles and adds, 'We have our white slaves from America to do that.'

At a recent meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab states congratulated themselves on their verbal condemnation of Iraqi aggression but spoke not one word of thanks to the American troops who had crossed half the world to fight for them. A Yemeni diplomat explained this curious omission to Judith Miller of the New York Times: 'A lot of the Gulf rulers simply do not feel that they have to thank the people they've hired to do their fighting for them.'

James LeMoyne reported in the New Yok Times last October in a dispatch from Saudi Arabia, 'There is no mass mobilization for war in the markets and streets. The scenes of cheerful American families saying goodbye to their sons and daughters are being repeated in few Saudi homes.' Mr. LeMoyne continued, 'Some Saudis' attitude toward the American troops verges on treating them as a sort of contracted superpower enforcer...' He quoted a Saudi teacher, 'The American soldiers are a new kind of foreign worker here. We have Pakistanis driving taxis and now we have Americans defending us.'"

(Link won't post properly; go here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/talk.politics.mideast and the message is from 8 Jan 1991, first result if one searches for "white slaves in the Persian Gulf&quot

[KansDem]

6. Thanks...

...quite illuminating.

[xocet]

8. Thank you for the reply and the link. n/t

[liberal_at_heart]

9. oh my god. that is one of the most disturbing things I have read in a long time.

[KG]

5. i regret i have but rec to give...

[roamer65]

7. The sooner we get off ME oil, the sooner the slavery ends. nt

If we do end our dependency, then their next slaves will be the Chinese.

[LuvNewcastle]

10. It's the same kind of slavery as drug addicts who become addicted

to their drug of choice. Our drug is oil.

[KansDem]

11. Good observation...

...and unfortunately too true.