Gulf Dictators Trained In Uk

[.InshAllah.]

Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK?  

Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller.

 

Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers.

 

It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army.

 

Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan.

 

Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh Saad, Emir of Kuwait, and Sheikh Hamad, Emir of Qatar.

 

Sandhurst alumni: King Hamad of Bahrain, King Abdullah of Jordan and Sultan Qaboos of Oman

 

Continues here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28896860

 

[Agora]

Well, to be fair, those four are some of the most moderate of middle east dictators. Especially Sultan Qaboos. Best dude ever.

[Ruq]

Traditionally its been a place for leaders in Gulf states to bond and make connections, but now they have Facebook they can just add one another and send each other funny memes and not bother with all that tiresome marching and button shining.

[Marbles]

In the late 1990s there were moves by the British government under Tony Blair to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets....as part of the "ethical foreign policy" advocated by the late Robin Cook, then-foreign secretary.

 

The funeral of King Hussein in 1999 appears to have scuppered the plan.

 

"Coming to that funeral were the heads of state of almost every country in the world - and our prime minister was there, Tony Blair," says Major-General Denaro. "He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?'

 

The answer was because they went to Sandhurst."

 

It's all about building rapport and keeping control of the tin pot sheikhs who then loyally give Westminster what it wants - commerce,  bases, cheap natural resources.

[Haji 2003]

A book that will give some important insights is, "No full stops in India" by the BBC's long-term correspondent based in that country, Mark Tully. 

 

This is an extract about India, but the same principle applies with reference to the Arab states in the Persian Gulf:

 

 

But the Raj could not have survived if we British had not been convinced of our own superiority, and so few Britons could not have ruled so vast a country if they had not also created an Indian elite who shared their conviction that British culture was inherently superior to their own. We were clever, not crude, rulers, and we realised the dangers of going too fast and too far - of the sort of resentment which caused the Indian Mutiny or the First Wir of Independence, whichever way you look at it.

 

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/exclusive-extracts-from-mark-tullys-no-full-stops-in-india/1/319006.html

 

Something else which is instructive is this photo.

 

It was taken to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The interesting thing is that every single Arab king (or their father) that you see in that picture was put in place by Britain.

 

[Shamati]

Britain (like many western nations) believe that the arab world cant handle democracy. That democracy will only lead to war. They believe a dictator must be in place to keep the barbarism in check.

This is partly why so many gulf dictatorships support the terrorist side in Iraq because it's in their Absolute interest that iraqi democracy fails utterly & descendants into civil war to prove the necessity of dictatorshipin the mideast.

[Sumerian]

Sultan Qaboos is not an oppressor, atleast publically.