3 ms·

it is funny how american "ally"ness with israel somehow manages to put a cover on the "western" democracy values and "freedoms".... i am pretty sure the moment

it is funny how american "ally"ness with israel somehow manages to put a cover on the "western" democracy values and "freedoms".... i am pretty sure the moment israel-usa relations turn sour, usa would wake up to the "inhuman treatment" and "apartheid".... right now its all fair and square and under the approval of American interests so its all fine. even EU hasn't had that "woke" moment with Palestinian yet, most probably because of the same pro-israel lobby....

DFHippie 4y ago
The relationship has been pretty sour since Netanyahu for a lot of Americans. He openly meddled in internal US politics, like Putin but with less gaslighting.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
  apparently not sour enough
  - DFHippie 4y ago
    Rather, not for enough Americans. Netanyahu won the hearts of Republican voters by openly treating Obama with contempt.
    - shapefrog 4y ago
      Obama existing won the hearts of Republicn voters. Lets not forget the tan suit, quite right it was rolling news for weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_tan_suit_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_tan_suit_controversy
      - kergonath 4y ago
        Or the mustard…
        shapefrog 4y ago
        I jsut watched Hanity from back in the day on this outrage, its worse than I thought, the man ordered his burger medium-well done. What kind of a savage does that?
refurb 4y ago
I mean the answer is pretty clear even for Europe. With ISIS committing acts of terror in Europe, it helps to have a country in the Middle East as an ally.
- tarakat 4y ago
  It's largely due to that alliance that ISIS even cares about Europe. The "alliance" itself is largely one-way - the US and Europe topple the government of any country that looks at Israel funny, and in return they get.. what? The usual answer is oil, but the cost of the Iraq war is estimated at $1.9 trillion [1]. Even if all of Iraq's oil industry was taken by the US, and its revenue was 100% profit that went entirely to the US, at the current record-high export of $11 billion/month [2], it would take 15 years to break even. But neither of those assumptions hold - oil industry profit margins vary between 5% and 30% [3,4], and the media seems shockingly disinterested in reporting how oil company ownership or profit flow changed following the war, but let's be generous and say it resulted in half of their total profits being diverted to the US (that weren't already diverted before). Under these more realistic but still very generous assumptions (using the 30% high-water mark for profit margin), it would take 97 years to break-even. That is also assuming Iraq would remain a stable pawn to US interests for that entire time, and it wouldn't take more military spending to keep them in line. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War [2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/2/iraq-oil-exports-11-07-bn-in-march-highest-for-50-years https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/2/iraq-oil-exports-11-... [3] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012015/what-average-profit-margin-company-oil-gas-drilling-sector.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012015/what-average... [4] https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/oil-industry-ranks-60-by-profit-margin/ https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/oil-industry-ranks-60-by-prof...
  - trasz 4y ago
    Except that the cost was paid by Iraqi citizens, and, to a small degree, American taxpayers, while the profits go to a small group of people/companies. In other words it’s still extremely profitable to US - to the part of the country that makes decisions.

DFHippie 4y ago

The relationship has been pretty sour since Netanyahu for a lot of Americans. He openly meddled in internal US politics, like Putin but with less gaslighting.

2Gkashmiri 4y ago
apparently not sour enough
- DFHippie 4y ago
  Rather, not for enough Americans. Netanyahu won the hearts of Republican voters by openly treating Obama with contempt.
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    Obama existing won the hearts of Republicn voters. Lets not forget the tan suit, quite right it was rolling news for weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_tan_suit_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_tan_suit_controversy
    - kergonath 4y ago
      Or the mustard…
      - shapefrog 4y ago
        I jsut watched Hanity from back in the day on this outrage, its worse than I thought, the man ordered his burger medium-well done. What kind of a savage does that?

refurb 4y ago

I mean the answer is pretty clear even for Europe. With ISIS committing acts of terror in Europe, it helps to have a country in the Middle East as an ally.

tarakat 4y ago
It's largely due to that alliance that ISIS even cares about Europe. The "alliance" itself is largely one-way - the US and Europe topple the government of any country that looks at Israel funny, and in return they get.. what? The usual answer is oil, but the cost of the Iraq war is estimated at $1.9 trillion [1]. Even if all of Iraq's oil industry was taken by the US, and its revenue was 100% profit that went entirely to the US, at the current record-high export of $11 billion/month [2], it would take 15 years to break even. But neither of those assumptions hold - oil industry profit margins vary between 5% and 30% [3,4], and the media seems shockingly disinterested in reporting how oil company ownership or profit flow changed following the war, but let's be generous and say it resulted in half of their total profits being diverted to the US (that weren't already diverted before). Under these more realistic but still very generous assumptions (using the 30% high-water mark for profit margin), it would take 97 years to break-even. That is also assuming Iraq would remain a stable pawn to US interests for that entire time, and it wouldn't take more military spending to keep them in line. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War [2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/2/iraq-oil-exports-11-07-bn-in-march-highest-for-50-years https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/2/iraq-oil-exports-11-... [3] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012015/what-average-profit-margin-company-oil-gas-drilling-sector.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012015/what-average... [4] https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/oil-industry-ranks-60-by-profit-margin/ https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/oil-industry-ranks-60-by-prof...
- trasz 4y ago
  Except that the cost was paid by Iraqi citizens, and, to a small degree, American taxpayers, while the profits go to a small group of people/companies. In other words it’s still extremely profitable to US - to the part of the country that makes decisions.