The Saudis kill people all the time, Americans included. They are accustomed to getting away with it because Saudi Arabia is one of the few nations with real economic leverage over the United States. While we produce more oil than the Middle Eastern nation, we also consume far more than almost every other country. That means, we need what they are selling. It wouldn’t take much for the Saudis to make our lives pretty uncomfortable pretty fast just by pinching the gasoline hose.
So, they can do just about whatever they please- as long as they maintain plausible dependability. And one thing they like to do is kill people who critique them for it. And why not? The religion of peace is full of permissions to kill. Tensions are high.
After all, they only just granted women the right to drive and stone to death women who are raped. But they need our greenbacks and we need the oil. The relationship between the Saudis and the US is like an aggressive bear hug, complete with sweet whispers, high crimes, and boot knives.
For decades, this arrangement of mutual guilt and need has gone by under the radar. That is to say, both their government and our’s have done everything they can to keep up appearances for the American people.
But Donald Trump is like a monkey wrench in the machinations of global mendacity. Trump is not the type of president who will put his hand in his pockets and whistle nonchalantly as the Saudis sweep another body under the rug.
Since the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month, the official explanation from the Saudi government has been all over the map- changing direction as rapidly as a sandy breeze. Until recently, their explanations have amounted to a shrug of the shoulders. Despite the fact that the last known video footage of Khashoggi showed him walking into the Saudi consulate. Their latest explanation is that he was killed in a “botched interrogation.”
Imagine the type of mind that thinks it’s normal to admit to accidentally killing a journalist while torturing him for information. These are the people we get our gasoline from. To let you know how seriously they are taking this inquiry, the suspected mastermind in Khashoggi’s murder is the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman—son of the King and the reported heir to the throne.
President Trump has been more vocal about the murder than presidents have been about similar murders in the past. This has kept the story popping up in the media, and that’s a good thing. But it goes to show just how in bed Washington is with the Saudis that the Saudis can openly admit to accidentally/on-purpose killing a journalist and get away with it.
Trump has promised that there will be “severe punishment” if it is determined that the Saudi government was involved in the killing. But he has also said that a reduction in arms sales to the Saudis is not up for consideration. In November, the Administration is expected to impose new sanctions that will prevent Iran from selling oil to an international market.
To prevent US oil prices from going through the roof, President Trump is counting on oil from other countries, including Saudi Arabia. But the Saudis have threatened to raise the price of a barrel to $400 each if Trump pushes them on the Khashoggi murder case.
Imagine there was only one gas station in your town. You have to make a long drive to work every day, and the owner of the gas station is also a local mobster. That is more or less the situation Washington is in with the Saudis.
That alone would be a pitiable predicament. But we lose all sympathy when we sell trunk loads of homemade shotguns to the gas station gangster.
But it’s even worse than that. The Saudis have threatened to seek the friendship of the Russians or Tehran to back them up if the US gets too pushy over this murder situation.
Zero Hedge, an online news outlet, writes, “For too long US has been in unhealthy relations with the Saudis, providing them with a security guarantee for “cheap” oil and the laundering oil profits through transactions with the US military by the purchase of billions in weapons.”
President Trump listens to his base. The American people should reject this relationship.
