Didn’t President of the United States just go to Saudi Arabia and ask them to produce more oil.
Have we not supplied them weapons for decades?
Does the world use 100 million barrels of oil a day?
Let’s go throw something on a famous painting and maybe that’ll stop.
Still waiting for the batteries and all the renewable energy to solve the problem.
In the meantime, it’s great that people can take the moral high ground for decades on end.
We’ve been trying to get off oil since the 1970’s. How’s that working out?
Some have, but for most people and most countries it's simply far too cheap and convenient to not do that. Until there's an oil shock or a war. The oil money also pays for a lot of anti-renewables lobbying.
If its a trait mixed with above average intelligence, these people often climb careers like ladders, and getting to the general/admiral level involves tons of political games and quid pro quo played right for decade(s).
What I want to say with all this - you bet those folks sleep well at night. They've sent 18-year old to (almost) certain death from time to time. Don't expect everybody in the world to share your morals, however sad it may be.
And even if you would percieve ignorance instead, it doesn't mean that they need snark targeted at them. Please respect the community guidelines of this comment section.
These former US officers in question may have already been working "for" this theocratic monarchy before they retired from the US military. So I don't think it'd be much of a moral leap for them to continue to do so, at least in their own minds.
But sure, I certainly wouldn't work for SA in any capacity; the whole idea would feel gross to me. But I don't have the career baggage of a US military officer who may have been stationed in SA for years.
Working for dictatorship is not worse than bombing innocent children in name of working for oldest democracy