[Do not dub me shapka broham]

No, they're not the same, but they both have the same mentality.

Simply because a country has the outward trappings of a free market and capitalism does not mean that it is automatically a U.S. ally.

I have a question for all of the Dubai boosters on this thread.

You can make the argument that mainland China is more capitalist in nature right now than Norway.

Does that mean that the PRC is a more reliable, trustworthy ally than Norway?

[.cnI redruM]

No. The UAE has not spent over $100 Billion dollars developing a military doctrine, and supporting weapons programs and training courses, known as "Assassin's Mace" designed to completely take down the US military's global information grid. Also noticeably absent from the equation are the millions of dollars that China has spent to fund Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe.

Norway cooperates with the US military via the NATO alliance and also has no dog in the fight down in Africa unless the UN dumps their peacekeepers in some place like Rawanda. Next?