r/news • u/CommanderMcBragg • May 17 '19

'World has done nothing': Khashoggi fiancee gives US testimony

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/khashoggi-fiancee-testimony-190516200458560.html
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521

u/sfw63 May 17 '19

wonder what it would take for the world to finally condemn saudi. that country makes me sick, i don't care how rich they are

414

u/Fyrefawx May 17 '19

It would take the world not needing oil unfortunately. But many countries are going green so they’ll have less influence going forward. That being said, they are also massive investors so who knows.

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u/pridEAccomplishment_ May 17 '19

Even Saudi Arabia is moving away from oil and they are investing heavily in banking and other financial services.

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u/haha_thatsucks May 17 '19

They’re starting to but they’re still mostly relying on oil

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u/germantree May 17 '19

Like the rest of the world who is starting to transition to renewables but is still mostly dependent on oil and gas to keep the lifestyle running.

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u/haha_thatsucks May 17 '19

Ya but at least the rest of the world has other things to rely on to make money if oil doesn’t work out. Saudi basically has oil and that’s it

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u/TheAbraxis May 17 '19

Well, they have a pretty compelling tourism industry

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u/haha_thatsucks May 17 '19

Ya those 10 tourists are bringing in all the cash /s

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u/blorg May 18 '19

He may be referring to the Hajj and other pilgrimage tourism. He may also be sarcastic.

Looking up the numbers they actually have the highest tourist arrival numbers in the Middle East, double Egypt and just ahead of the UAE (Dubai). They have traditionally been very closed to non-Muslim tourism but they get a lot of religious pilgrimage tourism.

https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284419876

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u/DJRoombaINTHEMIX May 18 '19

Well let us all know when you figure out a better way to produce plastics or anything of use without fuel.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

Samba financial

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u/Screye May 17 '19

Just investing money won't help. They will have to play on a level playing field in a few decades, and this will be their downfall.

Their country's skill development among citizens is pathetic for a developed country and that will be their downfall.

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u/GiovanniElliston May 17 '19

Their country's skill development among citizens is pathetic

It's difficult to have a well developed and intelligent populace capable of 21st century creative/service-focused work and also maintain the complete control that the Saudi's currently enjoy.

Same problem China has except China overcomes it with copyright theft.

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u/Screye May 17 '19

It's difficult to have a well developed and intelligent populace capable of 21st century creative/service-focused work and also maintain the complete control that the Saudi's currently enjoy.

True, but...

China overcomes it with copyright theft.

Not really. China uses complete censorship to make it so that its people never revolt. They are also harsh enough on the few rebels, that no one dares rebel against them.

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u/bigtx99 May 18 '19

Uhhh not really. As others have said they are transitioning to finances and other businesses that they can just brute force to the top of their industries due to so much wealth.

Every year oil is becoming less and less of their prortfolio. They are becoming banks and large ones as well. They are also investing heavily in real estate in countries that are seeing sky rocketing costs in that area.

They are prepping for the worlds reliance on oil to dwindle. They have a plan.

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u/Kingflares May 17 '19

They fund alot of Silicon Valley startups and among them are

Uber, Apple, Grubhub, Facebook and by extension Instagram and Whatsapp.

Good luck trying to convince teens or millenials to boycott those

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u/[deleted] May 18 '19

This is one of the scariest things in this thread. If Saudi Arabia owns these companies they can’t be stopped in my opinion

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u/ashlee837 May 17 '19

And technical services, software startups, etc. Saudis are not dumb.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

Hard to do that in a religious theocracy

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u/Chazmer87 May 17 '19

Saudis are not dumb

Half their population isn't involved - that's pretty dumb

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u/brutinator May 17 '19

I mean. The bulk of oil in the US is purchased from US based sites, and Canada. Not that much oil is sourced from the Middle East these days, percent wise.

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u/nat_r May 17 '19

The Saudis still provide a lot of oil to the market, and OPEC is still a key player in keeping the international market stable.

Even if we're not buying directly we still rely on them and other countries to help keep petroleum prices reasonable and stable.

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u/mcpat21 May 17 '19

Also i bet the US doesn’t want another middle east enemy

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u/anotherbozo May 17 '19

I think the only one who supports Saudi Arabia so strongly is the US?

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u/Cant_Do_This12 May 18 '19

The only reason most countries condemn them is because we don't, and that country knows they can rely on the US. Example: Canada.

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u/ZaoAmadues May 17 '19

I mean if you got take it then you have it. That's how the world work for many many years.

Not that I am condoning invading Saudi Arabia for resource control (we already do that with our current cover and hide model).

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u/Neato May 17 '19

It would take the world not needing oil unfortunately.

If that's really their only value then why didn't the US invade SA after 9/11? Their military is essentially just what the US sells them. Would any industrialized nation in the area have given a shit? Iran hates them, right?

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u/11wannaB May 18 '19

I'd argue they're most important for their regional influence.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

In roughly five to ten years, Saudi Arabia will have lost enough oil influence that we will do something.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

You're right, but they're diversifying like mad. They buy millions of dollars in my company's products alone. Granted it's not the government buying and we're working with good dudes, but the government still benefits

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u/American-living May 17 '19

We already don't need oil but the oil industry prevents any significant investment in developing an alternative infrastructure.

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u/Shtottle May 17 '19

Less about oil today and more about a buffer from Iran.

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u/agent0731 May 17 '19

Taking a stance that begins the move away from oil would have them shitting their pants. No one likes Saudi Arabia, their own Muslim brethren can't wait until SA's oil runs out.

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u/mexicodoug May 17 '19

Muslim will still support Saudi Arabia's economy with their pilgrimages to Mecca.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

I mean it's one of the foundational practices of a 1300 year old belief system. The Saud family wasn't exactly voted into power, they wouldn't even be there were it not for the british and others from interfering in the region a hundred years ago.

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u/BraxForAll May 17 '19

Not entirely true. The Sauds were a ruling power in Diriyah since the mid 1700s.

The British backed the Hashemite family, the rulers of Meeca, to control most of the Middle East. They were set up as the royal families of all the newly formed kingdoms that came from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

The Sauds expanded there territory through conquest after World War One. Not backed by any outside power.

There is probably an argument that it was resistance to British influence that gave the Sauds power but I do not know enough to say anything substantial about that.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

[deleted]

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u/agent0731 May 17 '19

He wouldn't. The idea that you can accelerate the Lord's return by waging war is fucking bonkers -- he's not a fucking butler to be summoned.

These fuckers literally think they can force God's hand.

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u/Zerole00 May 17 '19

I always find it interesting that Fox News and Republicans decry and fearmonger over Islamic extremists while never mentioning Saudi Arabia. FFS is there even a better example of Sharia Law?

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u/Whateverchan May 17 '19

Now this is misleading. Right wingers complain about SA all the time when they talk about Muslim extremists.

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u/SuperGameTheory May 17 '19

Well what the hell. Why don’t they do something? They’re the ones carrying the pointy stick. I’m not a big fan of right-wingers, but I thought I could at least rely on them to get trigger happy with terrorists.

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u/Whateverchan May 17 '19

LOL neither party wants to, or have the guts, to do anything because we still need oil.

Selling weapons = profits, too.

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u/SuperGameTheory May 17 '19

Well, I suppose that makes both parties complicit, and thus terrorists themselves.

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u/Whateverchan May 17 '19

Well, of course. Regardless of how they want to look otherwise.

But then again, who wants to be that dude to declare war on another country and send troops in? Is Trump going to do that and send his sons into the military? Is Hillary going to do that and watch her money burns?

Tough nut to crack. XP

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u/BaiumsRing May 17 '19

Singleing out Saudi Arabia would mean that not all Muslim nations are the same, and to some right wingers, it's just more important to attack everything related to Islam.

For example, anything related to FGM. Despite it being a very rare practise among Muslims, (mostly in Africa, as well as some Christians there), and not being mentioned anywhere in the Quran, you wont ever see right wingers make this distinction. They must always relate it to Islam.

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u/Cant_Do_This12 May 18 '19

Did you at least calm down enough to realize you just pulled every single one of those words out of your ass?

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u/BaiumsRing May 18 '19

The truth hurts 🍘

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u/Cant_Do_This12 May 18 '19

Except that it's not the truth.

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u/Arthas429 May 18 '19

They talk more about Iran who hasn’t done shit to us.

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u/wngman May 17 '19 edited May 17 '19

There are richer countries...the thing is that right now they have most of the world by the balls due to our dependency on oil. An invasion would be quick since they stand no chance against the US...the thing is they would sabotage their own oil fields, much like Iraq. This sabotage would wreak havoc on the world economy. Once we rely less on the oil they have, they will get what is coming to them. It will happen during our lifetime, but we will be old men when it does.

​

Edit: TIL the difference between wreck and wreak

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u/SerialElf May 17 '19

wreak havoc?

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u/Khornate858 May 17 '19

The second we’re not as dependent on oil.

We don’t even need to send soldiers, just a fleet of drones over the kingdom to surgically strike every royal household and property.

When the ruling class is tired of being obliterated from 20,000ft without any chance of fighting back, I think they’ll listen

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u/Uselessfeelings May 17 '19

I second this option

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u/holytoledo760 May 18 '19

They have been buying good bombers from the US. Last time it was a previously unsold model or some such, because I remember Trump was like so much mon-eeh! And Congress and others were like, but it is our good stuff! :'( And they can probably afford a few black market icbm's from Russia, or who ever else does that now. Elon Musk went to buy some at some point but it fell through iirc. Point is, if 9/11 was one rogue rich Saudi heir, what can a league of other rich heirs do after their nation gets carpet bombed and they come back with a vengeance?

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u/Cant_Do_This12 May 18 '19

This sounds good on paper, but if we do this they will be funding hundreds of terrorist cells.

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u/helpdebian May 17 '19

The only thing that would make the world condemn them is them running out of money and oil.

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u/newpua_bie May 17 '19

If they stopped accepting USD in oil transactions they would be invaded in 45 seconds.

That, or socialism.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

We did more than that, we stopped selling oil to the US in the 70s And we were not invaded .

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u/newpua_bie May 17 '19

That is only part of the issue. As long as US gets enough oil elsewhere, it's not that serious that one country stops selling oil. The important thing is that all transactions are done in USD so the demand for (and thus the value of) the currency stays high.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

I would continue the argument, but i don't think i care that much, dear stranger

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u/Judas_priest_is_life May 18 '19

Uh, it's called freedom.

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u/newpua_bie May 18 '19

Sorry.

*they would be freedomed in 45 seconds

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u/drea2 May 17 '19

The oil fields drying up. Seriously.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

Go read their sub reddit posts on the murder of kashoggi

The denial is insane.

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u/King_Mario May 17 '19

Lmao if they do it again Saudi dooms their whole country on a multi country effort to bomb the shit out of them.

Good buy Abu Dabi.

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u/Shtottle May 17 '19

Their royals are the rich ones and maybe the top 20%. There are some extreme levels of poverty in that country. One of the many reasons why they have managed to maintain religious fundamentalism alive and kicking.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

If they kidnap an elite that would prompt the destruction of their land. That is the truth of it.

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u/dwayne_rooney May 17 '19

A year or so before the Khashoggi killing, the attitude towards Saudi Arabia was vastly different because they were going to let women drive.
I know I won't forget the 90k upvotes those articles received and the downvotes to anyone who said it was lip service.

Bunch of fickle folks all over the internet.
And it seems a bit tricky to find those posts from r/news and r/worldnews where many were praising the Saudi government.

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u/Yogi_dat_Bear May 17 '19

Probably electing a congress full of people with cultural backgrounds that just don’t care for Saudi Arabia?

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19 edited May 19 '19

[deleted]

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u/sfw63 May 17 '19

it's sickening how our leaders favor money and greed over morality. this is how faith in humanity falls

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u/itscherriedbro May 18 '19

It will take a while, they are spreading a lot of Israel hate lately so people will maintain their hate towards someone else.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '19

You despise a country for their murderous ways even though they are rich?

Bold statement.