Richard, Richard, where do you get this stuff from?  Look, we won't argue the merits of America's 'democracy' as it seems you're hopelessly hooked!  Even your own president admits the inequality in your system. Never mind. Anyway as regards the mid-east, I agree in part about Egypt, as long as they can keep the US at arms length they might have a shot. For Syria, the destabilisation of governments who happen to disagree with your policies doesn't mean you overthrow them. Again, since 1945 the US has been involved in numerous coups and overthrows in Latin America, S.Asia, S.E. Asia, anywhere their 'interests' are involved. The danger inherent in that way of thinking is obvious. Aggressive war becomes the norm. In the end no country is safe. The US and it's followers have become a threat, backed up by its enormous military might, which if unchecked will only lead to more conflict.I doubt you'll see it like that, but with your 'political prominent' family you may heave a vested interest in America's hegemony. 

con,
there is no small elite who control things by their wealth.  Some people are politically astute.  They know how to win friends and influence people. 
The fact that you think US is run by a small cabal of insiders means that you do not understand the actual working of democracy.  That's okay.  You don't have to understand.  You don't even have to be very intelligent or well informed.  Just vote.  For every religious nutjob who votes like a salafist there will be a religious hating gay voting against them.  They cancel each other out and it works in the end.  Egypt did really great for their first election.  As long as the people stay active in politics Egypt could become the most powertful country in the region.  That is one of reasons Assad is doomed.  As Egypt rises the failure of baath system will only grow more and more apparent and the people of Syria will grom more and more restive.  The best thing for Syria would be a mass defection of military before the civil war becomes sectarian.  Syria is a t crossroads you know.  They either become like Lebanon or like Egypt.  There really aren't any other choices left for them.

Richard #30:  I think you make my point very well. You and your 'politically prominent ' family obviously represent that group to whom I refer. The small elite who by their wealth and influence control the electoral process or do well from it. This is particularly so in the US.  The greater mass of any populace has little say in the direction of a country's foreign policy, which is designed to further the objectives of multi-nationals and secure the resources of others. If it were the reverse we wouldn't have wars as the mass of people, by and large, reject conflict. It sounds to me as if the present system suits you and yours because you derive benefit from it. Why change if it serves your purpose? Individual s vote for who they are allowed to vote for, as parties select candidates. That's not democracy it simply fosters a plutocrasy, which is what we have today.  It's not a question of understanding the system, it's recognising when it's gone astray that's the gift.

CON (unregistered) wrote in #7IN REPLY:  Not sure where you live Richard but chances are if you  live in the west then you don't live in a democracy, at least not as generally defined.I think it's no longer about pleasing anyone but about who has the most influence. That's usually through corporate power and money. The only ideal is about accumulating wealth.  As for voting; in most western, and some non-western countries it's become irrelevant, as those for whom we vote don't represent our interests.  
i live in the west.  my family is politically prominent.  democracy relay does work as advertised and it really is controlled by average people working in avergae jobs making an average wage to feed an average family.  In US government actually does exist to serve the people.  We do not have robber barons like robobaronexports.  We do have lobbyists and that is bad.  But it is much less than soviet system due to a great man named Teddy Roosevelt who saw the problem before it got out of control.  

People who do not understand the system say that it is rigged.  I think it is easier for them to say the system is rigged than to admit that they aren't smart enough to understand it.

Claiming that Al Qaeda IS NOT created by USIsrael is an offence against inteligence.

You ar so right. EVERY BODY MUAST READ IT.

Al Qaeda is a US/NATO creation (unregistered) wrote in #3
If Al Qaeda really exist and are 'Islamists' defending Islam against zionists/crusaders why is it then that they have never carried out any direct attacks against Israel the arch enemy of Muslim nations? Why is it that they mostly kill other Muslims and their presence always justifies foreign intervention? It makes me wonder who Al Qaeda really are and who they are working for.

There is nothing to debate about.
Al Qaeda= USIrael and all Zionists of the worl rulled by criminal family of Rothschilds.

I really wish RT would stop pretending Al-CIAeda is real..

Richard (unregistered) wrote in #19
I said in April of 2011 that arab spring would give Al queda a chance to rescue themselves and transfrom their public image from "terrorist" to "freedom fighter".

But they are arab.  They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.  They will remain salafi after the revolution is over and find themselves a powerless minority in parliament.  Under democracy you do not win power by pleasing only one sect.  To win power in democracy you must please the largest number of people.  If you add up all the minorities it is a big chunk of votes.  People who abuse minorities never keep power in real democracy.  Why?  Simple.  because too many people will vote for prosperity and happiness.  You add them to the minorities and groups like salafi never win enough votes.

But .... let's keep that a secret for now.  If they want to fight for democracy ... then go team go!
IN REPLY:  Not sure where you live Richard but chances are if you  live in the west then you don't live in a democracy, at least not as generally defined.I think it's no longer about pleasing anyone but about who has the most influence. That's usually through corporate power and money. The only ideal is about accumulating wealth.  As for voting; in most western, and some non-western countries it's become irrelevant, as those for whom we vote don't represent our interests.  

v (unregistered) wrote in #12
Things are not working out they way they planned... IN REPLY: Quite the contrary. Sadly, I think they are.

Hurriyet (unregistered) wrote in #9
Jonatha n Evans - another brit idiot yaking and ranting to pump up their
barbarism and yak about their "CRUSADER WHORES"

A hh Franklin Lamb with his imperialist ideology
"al qaeda is oh so disciplined" that the
rape little girl, pregnant women, women, sodomize men, kill Libyan a few shades darker, destroy their country,
HAND THEIR COUNTRY TO ZIONIST MAFIA BANKSTERS
al-ci a-duh=CRUSADER WHORES
Jona than Evans read your bloody history - the 20+ genocides of her - stop the BS The SANITISED VERSION BELOW – similarities of what you have done in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakist an, Libya, Syria, Yemen,  
http ://www.guardian.co.u k/books/2005/dec/27/ eu.turkey In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, published in 2001, Mike Davis tells the story of famines that killed between 12 and 29 million Indians. These people were, he demonstrates, murdered by British state policy. When an El Niño drought destituted the farmers of the Deccan plateau in 1876 there was a net surplus of rice and wheat in India. But the viceroy, Lord Lytton, insisted that nothing should prevent its export to England. ………………� �.. Three recent books - Britain's Gulag by Caroline Elkins, Histories of the Hanged by David Anderson, and Web of Deceit by Mark Curtis - show how white settlers and British troops suppressed the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya in the 1950s. Thrown off their best land and deprived of political rights, the Kikuyu started to organise - some of them violently - against colonial rule. The British responded by driving up to 320,000 of them into concentration camps. …….These are just two examples of at least 20 such atrocities overseen and organised by the British government or British colonial settlers; they include, for example, the Tasmanian genocide, the use of collective punishment in Malaya, the bombing of villages in Oman, the dirty war in North Yemen, the evacuation of Diego Garcia.. - -------------------- -------------------- ------
shut up Baha Musa killers IN REPLY: A very interesting and sobering post. History repeating itself or merely a continuation? 

Let's get down to the nitty gritty. The CIA, M-15 and Mossad have an agenda and that is the colonization of the Mid East and Africa, places that have the resouces they want and need. The Mid East and Africa must consist of puppet governments. Russia and China along with other countries know that. I'm a Christian but the acts of "christians" is dividing christians and Muslims. Divide and conquer. It's easy to get the Muslims riled up at christians and christian nations. Look at what "christians", Zionist and Zionist christian, are doing to the  Muslims. Secular places like Egypt, Iraq and Syria are lumped together with christian. The old old plan still works: Thesis, a stable country; anti-thesis, a stable country in a state of turmoil and a systhesis nation, the resulting country once the turmoil dies down. FDR said..." When you see things happening in politics, you can bet they don't "just happen". They were planned that way". Under all this there is an underlying agenda by someone, somewhere. Find it and you don't have to look at tomorrows news.       

If Al Qaeda really exist and are 'Islamists' defending Islam against zionists/crusaders why is it then that they have never carried out any direct attacks against Israel the arch enemy of Muslim nations? Why is it that they mostly kill other Muslims and their presence always justifies foreign intervention? It makes me wonder who Al Qaeda really are and who they are working for.

Sayyid Qutb (unregistered) wrote in #20
Look chaps this all very simple..while Israel is the global superpower and can call on the CIA and NATO and Zionist politicians and media to allow the Israeli Jews to behave like a global GESTAPO for Jews, nothing will change for the better.

And if a group of Jews had been treated like the Palestinians have been treated Zionist propaganda machines like Murdoch/BBC would have gone berserk about it.

It`s not rocket science. Someone has to sit down with the Emperor Rothschild and his puppet Uncle Tom O`Barma and explain to them the facts of life outside their palatial mansions.

The re WILL be NO safe haven or homeland for people who behave as arrogantly and oppressively and dishonestly as the Jews do ....and that would be true of ANY other race with their reputation. It`s NOT racism it`s SOCIAL JUSTICE!

i would rather be treated like a palestinian in Israel than an arab in Syria