"The reports say the 52 prisoners – all of whom were convicted in the secretive Specialized Criminal Court – will be executed across nine different cities in the Kingdom in a single day."

The brutality instantly felt astonishing, and then I remembered Guantanamo is still open and will host its prisoners, sent there by secret courts, for the foreseeable future.

A single drone strike can kill 52 people, considering 90% civilian ratio in drone bombings... Middle Eastern people don't get any consideration for people's lives from their rulers or their Western counterparts.

We are screwed either way. It's sad to be frank.

>Guantanamo is still open and will host its prisoners, sent there by secret courts, for the foreseeable future.

So they'll be still alive at the end of the day. Such barbarity, DAE hate USA?

Nice job downplaying a country murdering fifty people for thoughtcrimes.

I'm not sure how you see holding someone with no charges, no due process and no chances of release as mercy. It sounds more like torture to me.

The sooner we stop burning oil the better.

Because when they have nothing we want we'll care more? Like Africa?

No because we will stop supporting them. I don't want to be indirectly supporting an illiberal neo-medieval government to continue. The people of Saudia Arabia deserve better.

There is also the issue of the huge amount of financial support for bigotry around the world coming out of Saudia Arabia. The sooner this money flow stops the better.

It's hard to have a good idea of what's going on in Saudi Arabia, but I am under the impression that the population is more conservative than its depraved monarchy and its cocaine trips to Europe. I am not sure a secular liberal government is what would result from some free elections.

How much control does the monarchy have on the clergy? Is it a sort of independant power? I struggle to understand the internal dynamics of this country.

I agree. All I can draw on is my personal experience and from this many Saudis are yearning for change and being part of the 21st century.

Africa has plenty that "we" care about. That's the cause of a lot of the bullshit that goes on regularly there.

I would say ethnic hatred is the primary factor. As it is in the middle east. The violence in Syria has more to do with hostility between Shia and Sunnis than oil. Oil is only making things worse because it gives the means to be really nasty.

I bet you don't know much about shia and sunni, essentially there is not much difference, this war is more of interest war than religious war. I would say Syria war is oil/gas pipeline war. and who can have more hegemony over the region when US becomes weaker and less interested in this region's OIL. that's why you see EU countries are much in hurry to get into this conflict, even Germany is in now.

Oh, Saudis are US friends, would love to see human rights watch report on Saudis.

Actually.... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/anger-after-saudi-ar...

The UK and the US have no moral standing in this world as long as they continue to remain quiet and continually support and trade with this backwards country.

But don't you dare to compare them to ISIS.

Compare? they are the ISIS, ISIS/ISIL is wrong name, Daesh is proper one, is very funny that John Kerry use Daesh, but Obama and everyone else use ISIS).

I've wondered why Obama uses ISIL, while practically everyone else is using ISIS.

I don't think it's just because he wants to remain consistent in his rhetoric. He must have a some advisor telling him to that acronym?

I think the use of two acronyms helps with the confusion. I believe Obama is a good man, but is really torn on what to do. I think about him sitting in the White House, and thinking--I can't bear to see another young man come home without legs. I guess we will send in a drone, and hope for no civilian casualties?

To anyone over there--the average American does not like the way our leaders treats your land, and people. Even though we have a democracy, we don't have much say in anything. We are all just pawns of our government. Guys join the military in order to get ahead in this competitive society. They don't realize the military offers very little job/career preparation. To any father who still tells his son, "What you need is a few years in the military!". Dummy up! If you have no good advice for your children; just be quiet? My old man was big on the military talk. I found out later his father paid a doctor to get him out of the Vietnam draft. I loved my dad, but he was a hypocrite. Even though I couldn't stand listening to his alcohol fueled diatribes, I still love the man.

> I've wondered why Obama uses ISIL, while practically everyone else is using ISIS.

The State Department interpretation of 'al Sham' is Levant, hence the 'L'. Other agencies translate it as Syria because Levant doesn't incorporate the full area. But there's no one-to-one Western name for the region indicated by the Arabic word.

The whole Daesh meme is amusingly naive; it's like calling "NATO" as "OTAN" ( its French abbreviation ) and claiming that it annoys the British. Really, they have better things about which to concern themselves than the actually accurate abbreviation some distant foreigners have adopted for them.

I agree - I still can't understand these pedantics about the name when everyone knows who you mean.

"What's in a name?..."

naming is important, specially if you want to associate something with something else, for this case: islam with violent crazy people who kill everyone, so ISIS/ISIL will associate these crazy nuts with Islam. it is like calling Americans, Western Christian Gun Owners or WCGO. do you still think it doesn't matter what do you name it?

ISIL is the translation, it's an acronym that comes from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

> The group is known in Arabic as ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, leading to the acronym Da'ish or Daesh