He was a mega-rich son of an Aramco executive and we would drive around Riyadh in his stretch opalesque-painted Mercedes like Princes. He was so proud of his American friend and for me it was like hanging with royalty. He was very intelligent as he wasn’t inbred, I’m sure his Father had a foreign wife. A really great friend. I got to go to his wedding...wow THAT was epic. Interestingly, on that day HE KNEW it was Al-Qaeda but most Americans had never heard the term. They had infiltrated the Saudi military and were regularly purged from the ranks. I recall one day at the AWACS hangar three AQ trainees were arrested right in the shop...they were scary-angry fuqqers.
This is fascinating! I hate that the only thing I know of other countries has been spoon fed to me by the MSM. What was the wedding like? I truly love to hear first-hand accounts, they help to cover the picture that has been painted for me.
I spent a total of 12 years in the Mideast and many years in Africa, Central & South America. The main thing I took from all my experiences is PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE. Full of love for family and friends, music, food and the desire for PEACE. Evil persists everywhere as well. So many can run-down the list of negatives concerning Arabs & Persians (muslims) but what about the positives? I listed the common themes globally above. When traveling abroad there’s a phrase “ugly Americans” that inevitably is heard. When you’re in a foreign land YOU MUST forget the American cultural norms and always try to leave a positive “taste” in a foreigner’s memory of Americans. Humans judge and pigeon-hole any foreigner as a group by their possibly only experience they have interacting with you. That makes US ALL a Diplomat as we travel. That’s key to remember. I’ve seen SO MANY Americans act like asses abroad that yeah, we earned that title as “ugly”. However, I was quite an exception in Saudi and made MANY friends and relished my experiences. I went to 2 Saudi weddings and often joined my trainees in desert cookouts/parties and often brought my young Son. He grew up loving soccer and a small group of us Boeing guys went to a USA/Saudi soccer match in Riyadh sitting next to the Royalty section we were a blob of color in a stadium of WHITE robes. I brought an air-horn and we totally stuck-out. The Princes loved it with everybody laughing kindly and mocking us as the Saudi team scored, and us going ballistic as Team-USA scored. A great memory. The weddings were opulent, even for poor or middle class Arabs as the groom’s family’s would petition Royalty for money to rent a “Wedding Palace” for the occasion. The women were separated to the other side of the Palace and my ex-wife went. Traditionally that’s where the single girls get completely “whored-up” in their dress and makeup...trying to impress the gaggle of Mothers shopping for brides for their sons. It’s just their culture. I dressed completely in Arab garb and with my Ray-Bans and cigarette hanging off my lip looked quite the part. Surrounded by my trainees, meeting their Fathers etc and being accepted into the fold was an immense feeling of kinship that’s hard to describe. I truly was a good Diplomat thereby erasing much of the “ugly American” moniker.
Wow...this really speaks to me today! I think about this often, we only know what the t.v shows us, but these are human beings, just like me. There's a mother over there somewhere with the same or similar emotions, feelings & experiences as me. Do they hate us, if so, why? I've never been to another country but I agree with you, we should always be diplomats, we should always give a positive view and interaction. We should humbly respect their culture & traditions, as we would hope/expect foreigners to do in ours. What we could learn from each other....endless possibilities! No matter how you dice it, judging a group of people based on the evil acts of a few is irresponsible and ignorant.
I really appreciate your outlook & I love to hear about experiences outside of this country, especially military since I have no experience with that either. As I read about the bullhorn my initial reaction was "oh no!" but...it was fun & you all enjoyed each other and laughed and had a great time! I guess I am still peeling away some layers of brainwashing, my reactions are ridiculous sometimes. This is a great eye opener for me, I think I'm awake...but there are some layers to remove yet.
So, are you saying the royalty pays for extravagant weddings for the little people? Is the royalty also the ruling class? That is fascinating either way, I can't imagine asking our 'royalty' to pay for my wedding!
Seriously thanks for sharing all of this, a whole new world for me & helping me to dig deeper and open my eyes wider
The Awakening can be painful too, as you undoubtedly know already. The ruling class in EVERY Nation “puts the global face” on it’s citizenry unfortunately. Just look how Biden et al has trashed our proud public face that Trump so REGALLY restored to us?! Anyway, yes certain Princes openly have the citizenry “petition” them for ALMS and a wedding is probably the most common. On certain holidays some palaces have lines of people waiting for their handout. I heard it’s almost always given but you literally have to approach the Royal and state your case. It’s not an abused system either...can you imagine spoiled-brat-lazy Americans with such a system? NOT. Anyway it’s how they “pay-back” the citizenry in a sense, as they reap the rewards of oil economy they repay; but with HONOR. They do cherish their customs and are a proud people at heart. It’s also how they don’t get overrun by said citizenry and become headless 😁
Let me add...at that soccer match Team USA WON. After our winning goal I went nuts jumping around blaring my air-horn THEN a Referee threw a flag and made a completely bogus call negating our winning goal. The Saudis ended-up winning on a penalty kick & IT WAS TOTALLY RIGGED. I think most of the stadium was pointing and laughing AT US...we were getting totally razzed and on the megatron screen looking like victims of public humiliation aka THEFT. So with all my diplomatic WINS erasing the “ugly American” moniker, the Arabs kept their reputation as THIEVES. That Referee probably would’a been castrated post-game if he hadn’t made that call...yeah.
He was a mega-rich son of an Aramco executive and we would drive around Riyadh in his stretch opalesque-painted Mercedes like Princes. He was so proud of his American friend and for me it was like hanging with royalty. He was very intelligent as he wasn’t inbred, I’m sure his Father had a foreign wife. A really great friend. I got to go to his wedding...wow THAT was epic. Interestingly, on that day HE KNEW it was Al-Qaeda but most Americans had never heard the term. They had infiltrated the Saudi military and were regularly purged from the ranks. I recall one day at the AWACS hangar three AQ trainees were arrested right in the shop...they were scary-angry fuqqers.
This is fascinating! I hate that the only thing I know of other countries has been spoon fed to me by the MSM. What was the wedding like? I truly love to hear first-hand accounts, they help to cover the picture that has been painted for me.
I spent a total of 12 years in the Mideast and many years in Africa, Central & South America. The main thing I took from all my experiences is PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE. Full of love for family and friends, music, food and the desire for PEACE. Evil persists everywhere as well. So many can run-down the list of negatives concerning Arabs & Persians (muslims) but what about the positives? I listed the common themes globally above. When traveling abroad there’s a phrase “ugly Americans” that inevitably is heard. When you’re in a foreign land YOU MUST forget the American cultural norms and always try to leave a positive “taste” in a foreigner’s memory of Americans. Humans judge and pigeon-hole any foreigner as a group by their possibly only experience they have interacting with you. That makes US ALL a Diplomat as we travel. That’s key to remember. I’ve seen SO MANY Americans act like asses abroad that yeah, we earned that title as “ugly”. However, I was quite an exception in Saudi and made MANY friends and relished my experiences. I went to 2 Saudi weddings and often joined my trainees in desert cookouts/parties and often brought my young Son. He grew up loving soccer and a small group of us Boeing guys went to a USA/Saudi soccer match in Riyadh sitting next to the Royalty section we were a blob of color in a stadium of WHITE robes. I brought an air-horn and we totally stuck-out. The Princes loved it with everybody laughing kindly and mocking us as the Saudi team scored, and us going ballistic as Team-USA scored. A great memory. The weddings were opulent, even for poor or middle class Arabs as the groom’s family’s would petition Royalty for money to rent a “Wedding Palace” for the occasion. The women were separated to the other side of the Palace and my ex-wife went. Traditionally that’s where the single girls get completely “whored-up” in their dress and makeup...trying to impress the gaggle of Mothers shopping for brides for their sons. It’s just their culture. I dressed completely in Arab garb and with my Ray-Bans and cigarette hanging off my lip looked quite the part. Surrounded by my trainees, meeting their Fathers etc and being accepted into the fold was an immense feeling of kinship that’s hard to describe. I truly was a good Diplomat thereby erasing much of the “ugly American” moniker.
Wow...this really speaks to me today! I think about this often, we only know what the t.v shows us, but these are human beings, just like me. There's a mother over there somewhere with the same or similar emotions, feelings & experiences as me. Do they hate us, if so, why? I've never been to another country but I agree with you, we should always be diplomats, we should always give a positive view and interaction. We should humbly respect their culture & traditions, as we would hope/expect foreigners to do in ours. What we could learn from each other....endless possibilities! No matter how you dice it, judging a group of people based on the evil acts of a few is irresponsible and ignorant. I really appreciate your outlook & I love to hear about experiences outside of this country, especially military since I have no experience with that either. As I read about the bullhorn my initial reaction was "oh no!" but...it was fun & you all enjoyed each other and laughed and had a great time! I guess I am still peeling away some layers of brainwashing, my reactions are ridiculous sometimes. This is a great eye opener for me, I think I'm awake...but there are some layers to remove yet. So, are you saying the royalty pays for extravagant weddings for the little people? Is the royalty also the ruling class? That is fascinating either way, I can't imagine asking our 'royalty' to pay for my wedding! Seriously thanks for sharing all of this, a whole new world for me & helping me to dig deeper and open my eyes wider
The Awakening can be painful too, as you undoubtedly know already. The ruling class in EVERY Nation “puts the global face” on it’s citizenry unfortunately. Just look how Biden et al has trashed our proud public face that Trump so REGALLY restored to us?! Anyway, yes certain Princes openly have the citizenry “petition” them for ALMS and a wedding is probably the most common. On certain holidays some palaces have lines of people waiting for their handout. I heard it’s almost always given but you literally have to approach the Royal and state your case. It’s not an abused system either...can you imagine spoiled-brat-lazy Americans with such a system? NOT. Anyway it’s how they “pay-back” the citizenry in a sense, as they reap the rewards of oil economy they repay; but with HONOR. They do cherish their customs and are a proud people at heart. It’s also how they don’t get overrun by said citizenry and become headless 😁
Let me add...at that soccer match Team USA WON. After our winning goal I went nuts jumping around blaring my air-horn THEN a Referee threw a flag and made a completely bogus call negating our winning goal. The Saudis ended-up winning on a penalty kick & IT WAS TOTALLY RIGGED. I think most of the stadium was pointing and laughing AT US...we were getting totally razzed and on the megatron screen looking like victims of public humiliation aka THEFT. So with all my diplomatic WINS erasing the “ugly American” moniker, the Arabs kept their reputation as THIEVES. That Referee probably would’a been castrated post-game if he hadn’t made that call...yeah.