Facing growing opposition from Congress on arms sales to Saudi Arabia,
the Trump Administration’s officials are lining up to dismiss concerns
about whether Saudi war crimes and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi might
warrant ending those sales.
The go-to administration argument was expressed by Acting Defense
Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Wednesday, when he insisted the US must sell the Saudis all the arms they want or risk losing those sales to Russia and China.
State Department officials were making the same argument, and while it’s
plainly not a moral argument, it doesn’t appear to be factually correct
either. Indeed China has long attempted to bolster its own relationship
with Saudi Arabia, but has conceded that even without the US there isn’t a practical way for China or Russia to supplant those huge arms deals.
That argument may be all the administration has, however, as officials
were very dismissive of Congressional questioning, declining to offer
any details of their attempt to circumvent Congress by declaring a
“state of emergency.”
Many in Congress are particularly angry about this declaration, since some of the arms in question aren’t to be delivered to the Saudis for more than a year, which hardly justifies the administration trying to skirt a 30-day oversight period.
Proof Positive that US hegemony is ONLY about US Profits.
Fervid competition for blood money. Remember when Sec. of State James Baker said first Iraq war was “about jobs”?
I do think this is misguided … I don’t mind us selling these rich fools the lethal toys they want; better that than having them spending money on K Street, building Wahhabi mosques, and funding terror. What I DO mind is us fighting alongside them.
Here’s a bargain: leave the ME to the locals and take all our military out and, in return, sell them whatever they need that is not dangerous to us.
And who do you think is clutching at every straw and every tanker in the Gulf in order to insure US never leaves Middle East? We are unquestioningly committed to the rejiggered and rejiggered again region forever. Public demands we stay until Israel is safe. There is no public discomfort with the idea that this money must be spent. The idea that US will get out is naive. Since clutching onto Syria and Iraq has become questionable and Yemen can have only so many people to kill — another war is needed or previous one recycled. Iran may be a much too big a bite. So, who may be next?
I think the same reasoning got the CIA into selling drugs in the US.