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Here’s Richard Branson’s blog post announcing this: https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-statement-kingdom-saudi-arabia https://www.virgin.com/richard-bran

Here’s Richard Branson’s blog post announcing this: https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-statement-kingdom-saudi-arabia https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-statement-kingdom-...

ironic_ali 8y ago
40 dead Yemeni kids doesn't meet Branson's profit criteria though
- MiddleEndian 8y ago
  Better late than never.
- IIAOPSW 8y ago
  1 death is a tragedy. 1 million is a statistic. -Joseph Stalin
  - tedivm 8y ago
    The history of that quote is actually older and much more interesting. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/
    - erikig 8y ago
      This was quite the read. Stalin's quote seems to originate from the 18th century quote which seems to apply as much today as it did then: One Murder made a Villain, Millions a Hero. — Princes were privileg’d To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime. - 1759, Beilby Porteus, England
  - Buldak 8y ago
    That would be bad enough, but I expect the salience of Khashoggi's murder has more to do with identity than numbers. It's not as if a singular dead Yemeni child would have dismayed anyone in the West. What made Khashoggi stand out was that he was a WaPo journalist.
- guessable 8y ago
  I guess that's complicated by the fact that the insurgent government (Houthi movement) there have a slogan like "God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam" and the Saudis gave the defending government there $2 billion in food aid. War is bad, but is sometimes worse in tragedy then it is in morality. It is different from globally-orchestrated assassinations against political opponents in foreign countries, between peace-time nations. https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-gives-yemen-2-billion-to-stave-off-hunger-and-prop-up-currency/a-42178853 https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-gives-yemen-2-billion-to-...
  - devoply 8y ago
    Oh no they have bad slogans, let's bomb them to hell, perfectly justified. It's the Middle East, where those sorts of opinions are pretty common. Saudis hate Shiites but other than that what exactly were the Houthis capable of doing to justify essentially destroying the entire country.
    - adventured 8y ago
      The context is that it's a proxy war with Iran, which has armed and supported the other side in the Yemeni civil war. Saudi Arabia fears Iran acquiring another political control point - one on their border at that - in the Middle East and increasingly surrounding Saudi. So they're willing to scorch the earth to stop that. Also, in terms of territory, with Iran + Persian Gulf, and Yemen + Bab-el-Mandeb straight, you can choke off Saudi Arabia's access to the Arabian Sea. That could heavily cripple their global oil shipping if it came to war, or at least cause a big mess. So Saudi Arabia views having a puppet and or friendly regime in Yemen, to be strategically vital. Saudi has wanted functional pipeline + port access in central Yemen for a long time, to get to the Gulf of Aden, to be able to bypass Iran's territorial waters just in case.
  - guelo 8y ago
    They bombed a school bus full of kids. A straight up war crime and just one of many by a foreign aggresor that is actively bringing death to thousands. That is much more evil than some slogan.
- shorttime 8y ago
  At least something hit it...

Here’s Richard Branson’s blog post announcing this: https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-statement-kingdom-saudi-arabia https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-statement-kingdom-...

ironic_ali 8y ago

40 dead Yemeni kids doesn't meet Branson's profit criteria though

MiddleEndian 8y ago
Better late than never.
IIAOPSW 8y ago
1 death is a tragedy. 1 million is a statistic. -Joseph Stalin
- tedivm 8y ago
  The history of that quote is actually older and much more interesting. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/
  - erikig 8y ago
    This was quite the read. Stalin's quote seems to originate from the 18th century quote which seems to apply as much today as it did then: One Murder made a Villain, Millions a Hero. — Princes were privileg’d To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime. - 1759, Beilby Porteus, England
- Buldak 8y ago
  That would be bad enough, but I expect the salience of Khashoggi's murder has more to do with identity than numbers. It's not as if a singular dead Yemeni child would have dismayed anyone in the West. What made Khashoggi stand out was that he was a WaPo journalist.
guessable 8y ago
I guess that's complicated by the fact that the insurgent government (Houthi movement) there have a slogan like "God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam" and the Saudis gave the defending government there $2 billion in food aid. War is bad, but is sometimes worse in tragedy then it is in morality. It is different from globally-orchestrated assassinations against political opponents in foreign countries, between peace-time nations. https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-gives-yemen-2-billion-to-stave-off-hunger-and-prop-up-currency/a-42178853 https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-gives-yemen-2-billion-to-...
- devoply 8y ago
  Oh no they have bad slogans, let's bomb them to hell, perfectly justified. It's the Middle East, where those sorts of opinions are pretty common. Saudis hate Shiites but other than that what exactly were the Houthis capable of doing to justify essentially destroying the entire country.
  - adventured 8y ago
    The context is that it's a proxy war with Iran, which has armed and supported the other side in the Yemeni civil war. Saudi Arabia fears Iran acquiring another political control point - one on their border at that - in the Middle East and increasingly surrounding Saudi. So they're willing to scorch the earth to stop that. Also, in terms of territory, with Iran + Persian Gulf, and Yemen + Bab-el-Mandeb straight, you can choke off Saudi Arabia's access to the Arabian Sea. That could heavily cripple their global oil shipping if it came to war, or at least cause a big mess. So Saudi Arabia views having a puppet and or friendly regime in Yemen, to be strategically vital. Saudi has wanted functional pipeline + port access in central Yemen for a long time, to get to the Gulf of Aden, to be able to bypass Iran's territorial waters just in case.
- guelo 8y ago
  They bombed a school bus full of kids. A straight up war crime and just one of many by a foreign aggresor that is actively bringing death to thousands. That is much more evil than some slogan.
shorttime 8y ago
At least something hit it...