Turkey gives NATO an very valuable geopolitical position, with leverage as the most powerful nation in the Mideast neighborhood, as well as dominating the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean, and providing a position on the southern flank of Russia, eastern flank of the Balkans (less essential post-Cold War), and a stable border with countries to the east and south. Turkey as an enemy would be a serious headache.
Qatar and especially Saudi Arabia, the wealthiest and most powerful Arab state, give the U.S. leverage and stability (at least for decades until recently) in the Mideast, which, due to the oil supply, is essential to world peace and prosperity. They also counter-balance to Iran.
Those benefits don't necessarily justify supporting oppression, but those are very serious considerations.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/saudi-connection-...
Maybe more accurately would be "play ball with us or with nobody".
It is simply a coup or a revolution, a democracy or a dictatorship, depending on the "relations" between the US politicians and these governments.
1) Mubarak was an unelected dictator; he was replaced by a democratically elected government.
2) Morsi was democratically elected and replaced by a military dictatorship; thus it was a coup.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_presidential_election...
2) Mubarak was also forced to resign by the same military council in February 2011 and the military council ruled until June 2012 when morsi was elected, it just wasn't called a "coup" and "military dictatorship" back then by the western media.
Stalin and many (most?) other dictators also have staged elections. From the article you linked:
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Of the 30 proposed candidates, only 10 were allowed to participate in the presidential election by the Presidential Election Commission. One prominent candidate not allowed to run was Talaat Sadat, the nephew of former President Anwar Sadat, who appealed his disqualification unsuccessfully.
Egypt's largest Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood, was not permitted to field a candidate ...
----
And also:
official results showing he won 88.6% of the vote. Mubarak's opponent, Ayman Nour, of the Tomorrow Party, is estimated to have received 7.3% of the vote and Numan Gumaa received 2.8%,
Numbers like that are unseen in any legitimate election. The highest in U.S. history was 61%.
That's not surprising since the US doesn't make election day a public holiday.
- Mubarak was America's best friend. American's public support for Egyptian democracy? Yeah, that's just for show.
- Who else was America's best friend? The Egyptian army. 90% of US aid goes to propping of the Egyptian military and has for decades (basically the army is in their pockets). America and IDF has had an excellent working relationship (ie help with killing Palestinians) with the Egyptian military for decades.
- Americans didn't like Morsi at all, Although overtly they claimed to support Egyptian democracy.
- Eventually Morsi, messes up. And guess who is there to save the day? Why its the Egyptian Army! Morsi tried to restrict democracy. Sisi will defend democracy by removing it entirely. Next thing you know the entire democratic elected cabinet is on death row and Mubarak is slowly but surely having his charges removed, while living under 'House arrest' in his comfy house.
- Who is now emperor of Egypt? Why its America's point man and best buddy for decades, Sisi (This is purely coincidence, wink wink ). America will very loudly suspend all aid to the dictatorship, only to very quietly resume it a year later.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Lol. USA is pumping up every year more than 1 billion USD into Egypt.
This is simple geopolitics, not some corruption scandal.
2. Look at the ads and sponsors in the big news channels like CNN, mostly institutions and companies owned by these countries (Qatar airways, Turkish airlines, Dubai, Abu Dhabi...), no wonder on the day of the "coup" against Erdogan, These media outlets labeled his "supporters" as pro-democracy. That never happened for Hosni Mubarak who was labeled as an evil dictator for example, he just didn't pay simply.
3. The west is trying to push the story that the conflict in Syria is just between white "the rebels" (FYI they are actually Sunni islamists) vs black "Assad" (he is a dictator yeah, but not worse then Erdogan), it is the same opninion of these governments.
4. No one is condemning or even talking about the horrific crimes like Turkey against the kurds, Saudi Arabia killing thousands of Shia in Yemen, Qatar funding militant islamists all over the world.
Straight from Saudi Arabia's mouth, a billionaire prince owns a significant portion of AOL Time Warner:
http://www.kingdom.com.sa/investments/media-and-publishing/t...
This is just one example. People need to do their research and wake up to what's happening around them.
To suggest the US wants Saudi investment in its stock market that has the sole impact of pushing up one cable company's stock price is absurd and obtuse.
- Erdogan – terrible as he may be – was until recently legitimately elected. I say until recently because (even some time before the coup) he started undermining democratic institutions, mostly the press. Mubarak was never elected in anything but a sham election.
These governments are not donating "hundreds of millions" to politicians. If you can find evidence for that, make it public. Because it's illegal to take money from foreign governments/nationals. Yes – the Clinton foundation did (because it's not a politician, and in turn spends the money on its causes). But it's nowhere near "hundreds of millions", and it had started years before HC became important. And there's no indication that Clinton's behavior vis-a-vis these government was any different than it had been the 40 years before or the three years since her tenure.
Assad is indeed worse than Erdogan, considering he's killed hundreds of thousands, some with chemical weapons.
Everyone is talking about Turkey. There'll be sanctions, their membership in NATO may be frozen. But the problem is simply that there isn't that much that can be done. If you sweep in and bomb Ankara – well, take a look at Iraq. You'll also create incentives for similar countries to acquire nuclear weapons. And there's a principle of non-involvement: Start bombing people (again), you'll make it even easier for Russia to claim legitimacy when they invade something they'd like to have.
They do invest, though I'd need evidence of hundreds of millions. Regardless, the U.S. has very strong geopolticial reasons to support them:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12870161
> no wonder on the day of the "coup" against Erdogan, These media outlets labeled his "supporters" as pro-democracy. That never happened for Hosni Mubarak who was labeled as an evil dictator for example
Mubarak was a dictator and Erdogan is democratically elected.
> "Assad" (he is a dictator yeah, but not worse then Erdogan)
I very strongly disagree. How many people has Erdogan killed? Did Erdogan use chemical weapons on his own people? Invite the Russian military, Iranian military, and Hezbollah into his country to kill his own people? I strongly dislake Erdogan, but there is no comparison.
> No one is condemning or even talking about the horrific crimes like Turkey against the kurds, Saudi Arabia killing thousands of Shia in Yemen
I've heard plenty of talk about it, but people aren't dying on nearly the same scale as in Syria.
I expect huge diplomatic backlashes when the situation in Syria stabilizes. But I'm a bit of a dreamer.
Please note, this is just one obvious example. Read into this topic more. Ignorance and lack of research doesn't mean people are "paranoid". Easy to dismiss uncomfortable truths by calling people paranoid and conspiracy theorists.
Member states are rotated every 3 years. The council is heavily controlled and influenced by middle eastern and African nations, supported by China, Russia and Cuba, which protect each other from criticism. Even Ban Ki-moon has called the council ineffective. An example of this influence is that it criticises Israel more than all other countries combined - which, remember, include North Korea, Syria, China, Turkey, Libya, Burma, Zimbabwe, etc.
The UNHRC is not representative of the UN.
Syria, Iran and Russia -> Enemies
That's how pay for play works, everybody. If you don't pay, your government is labeled as a dictatorship. Simply fallen from the US grace. The UN is just a diplomatic tool to discredit you and NATO is another tool to kill you.