Beyond Shamelessness...Beyond Hypocrisy
by John Lawrence, November 18, 2018
First you have the murder of a US based Saudi journalist who was critical of the dictator of Saudi Arabia - Mohammed bin Salman. Then you have the Saudi attempts to cover it up. Now even the CIA is convinced that the order came from Salman who plans to kill five of the hatchetmen involved as a way of assuaging international opinion, apparently, that they were really the ones responsible, not him. But then you have Trump, on behalf of the holier-than-thou United States when it comes to murders like this, saying that we have to go along with Saudi Arabia and Salman on this because, otherwise, it might cost American jobs. Sure, and if all wars were stopped immediately, it would cost thousands of American jobs. So that is what this is all about - the perpetuation of war because it might cost American jobs?
Morality and ethics have been totally thrown out the window by the US in the conduct of international relations. Any careful consideration would conclude that Iran, although far from perfect, is a more moral and ethical country than Saudi Arabia. Yet we have to hate Iran and sanction Iran and try to bring Iran's economy to its knees because Saudi Arabia hates Iran and they are our ally? This whole thing is ridiculous. Trump is trying to preserve Saudi Arabia as an American ally because Nixon made a deal with the Saudis to sell oil only for dollars thus making the dollar the world's reserve currency. The Saudis off people in the public square for hardly any reason at all. Their religion, Wahhabism, preaches death to the West and to Jews. Usama bin Laden was a Saudi as were 15 of the nineteen 9/11 highjackers. The Saudis are just using the US and vice versa.
On moral and ethical grounds, we shouldn't be allies with Saudi Arabia. On moral and ethical grounds concerning the welfare of our grandchildren who will be getting the worst effects of climate change brought about by the usage of oil, we shouldn't be friends with Saudi Arabia. I don't say we have to be enemies with them either. Just take a step back and treat them as you would any other country. Don't alienate them, but don't consider them total allies either. The US should operate so as to bring peace to the world, not to side with one set of nations against another set. In other words diplomacy rather than outright support and alliances. Only then will America have the moral and ethical high ground.
We shouldn't be basing American jobs on support for an immoral dictator, who shamelessly tries to cover up the fact that he had a journalist brutally murdered by murdering five of the guys he ordered to do it. When Trump is hopefully defeated in 2020, the US should get back into the Iran deal which Trump pulled out of and which the Europeans have tried to uphold, and we should sanction Saudi Arabia over the murder of Khashoggi, let the chips fall where they may. Only then can the US redeem itself as a moral and ethical nation.
