alt Hacker NewsEh. I would call several of the Middle-East countries that got their data centers smushed as "politically stable." They just got into bed with the wrong ally, I guess?
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> I would call several of the Middle-East countries that got their data centers smushed as "politically stable."
That's the lie that the US and most other Western countries have told themselves ever since the discovery of oil turned what used to be nomads herding camels and catching fish into the thriving petrostates they are today.
Most of MENA is only stable on paper, that stability being heavily dependent on oil and gas production providing giant slush funds to citizens and a horde of exploited migrant and seasonal workers providing for daily needs. That's why they all went into tourism so hard over the last two-ish decades, they know that the fossil fuel reserves are eventually going to deplete and worldwide demand collapsing with them, and that's why everyone but Iran eventually made their peace with the existence of Israel despite sometimes heavy opposition of the population, and that's why there's still barely any opposition to the US and Israel waging war against Iran, and that's why most of MENA militaries but Iran and Israel's are utterly useless as well - a capable military would be able of coup'ing away the ruling kleptocracy.
And now the MENA countries are in for a wild ride. The Mullahs are sadly far from gone, the Western world is busy weaning itself off of oil and gas following the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the price shocks related to that plus the Iran war, tourists won't come back in meaningful numbers likely for a decade if not longer.
Visit Iran, then visit UAE or Bahrain, then tell me again if they got in bed with the wrong ally.
They are not politically stable, quite the opposite: weak states held together by single sector revenues. Right after Ukraine war started, I started maintaining a map of next flashpoints: got a hit on Arabian peninsula + Iran, Venezuela, India/ Pakistan. Israel and Gaza were a surprise. Eastern flank (Finland/ Baltics/ Poland/ Romania is in a slow burn. Still waiting for Taiwan, south china sea and Singapore/Malaysia+ Indonesia - but that will be the big one, and actually the conflict for the straits (Malaca and Sunday) may have gotten invalidated by the Iran mess.