A top priority for President Trump as with many recent presidents, is the selling of massive amounts of US arms internationally.That’s meant his promises to get to the bottom of the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have clear limitations.
In comments today, after insisting how determined he is to tackle this matter at the “highest levels,” Trump is walking back the issue, insisting that it isn’t worth it for the US to imperil $110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia over a single journalist.
Trump says it wouldn’t be acceptable to lose the $110 billion deal, adding that the journalist’s disappearance took place in Turkey, and he’s not a United States citizen. He did suggest there are “other things” the US could do.
This is exactly why Trump weighing in on the issue at all was something of a surprise. The arms deal is simply too important to politically well-connected US arms companies, and any serious attempt to punish the Saudis for the likely killing of Khashoggi is going to boil down to a fight over the arms deal.
Doesn’t it make you feel proud, to be living in an advanced Western democracy, where we are really concerned with human rights issues and would never compromise our ideals for money.
I include the UK in that statement, because we have sold our souls to the devil.
There’s something strange about this. We weren’t bothered a bit when Saudi bombed NYC and killed 3000 of our people. Now we’re bothered because Saudi may be holding or harming a Saudi journalist.
This resembles the usual preparation for war, when we focus on one US spy (described as a “hiker” or a “pastor” or a “tourist”) who is being held by our target country. Safe bet that Khashoggi is CIA.
Israel did 9/11
My guess is that the “pastor” being released from prison in Turkey is CIA also.
Trump’s MAGA foreign policy: Make Apartheid Great Again for Israel, and Make Assassination Great Again for Saudi.
No, the Saudis do apartheid too. Just ask the Shia in Bahrain and on the Arabian Persian Gulf. And Mossad has a sniper on every grassy knoll from Texas to Tel Aviv, for that matter. Both of those MAGA’s are interchangeable. It’s more like MMGA (kinda like “Mmmbop” for 2018); Make Murder Great Again. So damn catchy, just makes you wanna murder someone.
Trump is owned by The Swamp.
When they drain the swamp, the very last thing to slither out will be the Donald.
Defense Dept run by Boeing and Lockheed.
How does one tell where the Defense Department ends and the MIC begins? Some might want to look up “Fascist Economics” to understand what this and other branches of the government are all about.
Well, he was born there. Where do think he got all that f**king money? It sure as sh*t wasn’t hard work and free markets.
“Daddy was a contractor, but he never hurt nobody. He just loved to live that way and he loved take your tax money. ONE LOVE!”
Can we get Justin in here to tell us how this is a brilliant disruption of the war party?
Just yesterday he was talking about the Saudi demise. As if Trump gives a flying f**k about any journalist being abducted and chopped to bits. So much for that being the straw that broke the camels back.
Why would we punish them? He wasn’t an American. Maybe Israel can punish them?
my bet is he got caught actually spying for the Saudis when he was meant to be spying for somebody else either the Quateris (since in the Independent article it mentions MBS saying he is Muslim brotherhood) or the Turks who seem to know a lot about the situation.
actually after hearing Scott talk with Dan Lazare this credits the saudis with way too much intelligence.
Nations’ interests always take precedence over human rights. The pattern of history is clear. Power (manifested as interest) has been present in every conflict throughout history – no exception. It is the underlying motivation for war. Other cultural factors might change, but not power.
Interest cuts across all apparently unifying principles: family, kin, nation, religion, ideology, politics – everything. We unite with the enemies of our principles, because that is what serves our interest. It is power, not any of the above concepts, that is the cause of war.
It is the one thing we will destroy ourselves for, as well as everyone else. As a result every civilization/nation eventually gets the war it is trying to avoid: utter defeat. This applies as much today as any other time in history. Leaders and decision-makers delude themselves, thinking they can avoid their fate – they can’t. If survival is threatened, there is no alternative to war, however destructive. To the very end putting power before people.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
You’re wrong
Funny thing is, on the relative scale of moral indecencies committed by the atrocious Saudi regime, the killing and dismembering of one of their own citizens is not even among the top ten bad acts. I mean we’re talking about a nation that has been funding fundamentalism and radicalism around the world for more than 40 years, that was largely responsible for 911, that funded terrorists in Syria, that is currently committing mayhem in Yemen, etc. etc. …
All that apparently did not cause us to cut ties with them … one journalist’s death will??
And the killing of one more Arab journalist is not in the top ten for the US or for Israel, both great buddies of the Saudis just now.
Islamic terrorists have been operating for more like 700 years
He was a journalist for the Washington Post. Trump hates the Washington Post. Sacrifice $110 billion in sales and jeopardize world oil supply to vindicate the Washington Post? Never.
Anyway, Arab journalists have been killed constantly for years by the US and Israel. We don’t even count them. Why should just one killed by our friends (and Israel’s friend) the Saudis matter so much? Because people who hate Trump liked him?
This isn’t any of our business. Why are some of you so eager to intereve over this?
What do you mean by “intervene?”
I’m all for simply cutting off all official relations between the US and Saudi Arabia. And I have been in favor of that for a long, long time.
Nora Al-Awlaki was an American citizen. Some of us haven’t forgotten.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/foreign-policy/her-name-was-nora/
Did Trump actually say we can’t risk foreign military sales because of one murder .. Doesn’t Trump realize American can never be great again if we willing to look the other way And be blind to just plain murder .
Maybe Saudi Arabia held him hostage like they did with the Lebanon president .We have no proof he is dead . Turkey claims they have seen a film of the Saudi’s killing him . Muslims do seem to like take pictures of their worst deeds .
I think everyone likes to take pictures of their worst deeds. I don’t think it’s a Muslim thing. It would be interesting to keep track of all those nasty deeds done out there and categorize by religious group who was responsible. It wouldn’t matter if it was a nasty deed done in the name of religion but only which religion the nasty deed doer was affiliated with. After all, isn’t that the only thing that matters?
The greatest thing about this is any other American president would have done the same damn thing. They just wouldn’t be stupid enough to blurt it out like a six year old announcing he farted in church. Make America Great Again, indeed. USA! USA! USA!….
In the end this gets swept under the rug, best we can hope for is maybe the USAF giant gas station in the sky that refuels American planes dropping American bombs on Yemeni school kids could double the prices it charges the Saudis.