On top of President Trump’s daily defenses of Saudi Arabia, Defense Secretary James Mattis offered his own comments on the Khashoggi murder on Wednesday, saying that the US needs to balance the Saudi human rights record with the value of working with Saudi Arabia.
Mattis went on to say that the US will continue to demand “accountability for anyone involved in the murder,” but that the US will never apologize for working with Saudi Arabia, even though they were the ones behind the murder.
This a common theme in talk of finding a “balance” between human rights and US military interests abroad. In recent history, the balance boils down to giving lip service to human rights and going out of their way to admit to statements of fact about the violations.
This was the same tactic done in post-coup Egypt, as US law forbids military aid to military juntas. The “balance” found in that case was to never formally recognize that the coup happened, and the “balance” in the Khashoggi case is to pretend that there is still massive uncertainty surrounding a Saudi kill team murdering a journalist inside a Saudi consulate.
Mattis got his “Mad Dog” moniker in the battle for Fallujah which was a classic example of war crimes, US Marines killing innocents, so he’s not about to care about one death. Never happen.
Interests always take precedence over human rights. It’s not ‘balance’, it’s choice. Whatever best serves national interest at any particular time. It is all about power: gaining it, retaining it or regaining it. That is clear from the pattern of history. The question is, can states pursue legitimate interests without ultimately destroying what they seek to preserve?
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
I have to assume that the answer is “of course.” How should we engage with the world then? We should be friendly and help others (not oppress, exploit or attack). What a change that would be.
Mattis should have went with Trump’s reasoning that if we got rid of our allies that have human rights issues, we’d have no allies. Never mind that we continue to use that same excuse as one of the reasons for our hostility towards Iran.
Let’s not forget the Saudi “kill team” they sent over on 9-11 if we’re trying to “balance”(yeah right) things…….. We have allies that trap us into fighting and paying for their wars and this idiot calls it “balance” ……….. Wanna bet his golden parachute via the arms and finance industry will make him a billionaire if not a multi millionaire ??