A View From The Left- NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong WHO LOVES SAUDI ARABIA?

NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong

WHO LOVES SAUDI ARABIA?

Answer:  Both Republican and Democratic Elites (and look here for Seventy Years of the New York Times Describing Saudi Royals as Reformers)

Here’s a letter I wrote to the Globe last week: 

“Saudi Arabia has been a repressive and backward absolute monarchy for its entire modern history.  It has executed scores of non-violent critics -- including just last year a cleric who was the leader of a large and repressed Shia minority – without much complaint from its Western partners.  Saudi Arabia’s toxic version of fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam has been the source of untold mayhem throughout the world, including the rise of Al-Qaeda/ISIS and the 9/11 attacks against the U.S. 

Yet American corporations, universities, think-tanks and cultural institutions have maintained uninterrupted ties with this rogue state.  Saudi Arabia has been by far the largest purchaser of U.S. military hardware, which it has been employing lately, with American logistic support, in its genocidal war against Yemen. Last year its de facto leader, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, made a triumphant U.S. tour where he was feted and praised by politicians and journalists alike as a promising young reformer.

Now that the Saudi government has apparently murdered a U.S.-based journalist who was a mild critic of the regime, American commentators and business leaders are shocked, shocked to discover that something is rotten in the state of Saudi Arabia.  But this was not just the isolated crime of particular Saudi leaders.  It reflects the habitual behavior of a poisonous regime.

Cutting our ties with Saudi Arabia is long overdue.  The shame is that the Saudi monarchy has so long enjoyed warm relations with the U.S. under both Republican and Democratic Presidents.”

In case you were wondering: 

Khashoggi, as it is usually spelled in English, is Kh-a-sh-q-j-i in Arabic but it’s pronounced differently in different Arabic dialects.  So, Khashuqji, Khashu’ji, Khashogji and Khashoggi are all possible ways to say it. Tomayto/Tomahto . . .

WHY IS SAUDI ARABIA UNDER FIRE OVER JAMAL KHASHOGGI, BUT NOT YEMEN?

Many journalists working on the story, business people pulling out of Saudi conferences and politicians preparing diplomatic responses knew Khashoggi personally. He was a fixture of the thinktank circuit and a habitué of elite London and Washington parties. His former colleagues feel genuine empathy for Khashoggi over his apparently grisly end, because it requires little imagination for them to put themselves in his shoes. Yet these influencers appear to have a blind spot for the more routine victims of unchecked Saudi aggression. Unlike Khashoggi, the thousands of Yemeni civilians who have been blown up by the Saudi royal air force do not write for the Washington Post.  Reports of an airstrike claiming the lives of at least 20 members of a wedding party, or 40 children killed when a Saudi bomb hit their school bus, may prompt a story in a national newspaper and perhaps a handwringing statement expressing “concern” by a foreign minister.

But real political action does not follow.   More

Or How One Journalist’s Death Provoked a Backlash That Thousands Dead in Yemen Did Not

H.Con.Res.138 – Invoking the War Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress -- so far cosponsored by McGovern, Capuano, Kennedy(!)

Call on Congress to take action today to end the U.S. supported attack on Yemen and prevent war with Iran.

Trump says his arms deal with Saudi Arabia willcreate a lot of jobs. That’s not true.

Overall, the private US defense industry does directly employ a lot of US workers — about 355,500 in 2016, according to the most the recent estimates from the Aerospace Industries Association. But private-sector defense workers make up less than 0.5 percent of the total US labor force, and that includes every person whose job depends directly on the sale or production of airplanes, tanks, bombs, and services for the entire US military. It’s unlikely that many of them, if any, depend directly on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, and its also unlikely that those jobs would vanish if Saudi money disappeared…  So despite what the president says, there is no real threat of US job losses to justify continued American support for a repressive regime that is likely responsible for the gruesome murder of a journalist in Turkey — and that is also killing thousands of civilians with American-made weapons in Yemen.   More

Khashoggi case proves that when Saudi Arabia’s credibility is damaged so is America’s

The alleged murder of Mr Khashoggi is only the latest of a series of Saudi ventures since 2015 that have failed to turn out as planned. The list includes a stalemated war in Yemen that has almost provoked a famine; escalation in Syria that provoked Russian military intervention; the blockade of Qatar; and the detention of Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri. For the first time, the US media is giving wall-to-wall coverage to negative stories about Saudi Arabia. One effect of this is to undermine Mr Trump’s effort to sell his confrontational policy towards Iran by demonising it as a uniquely criminal and terrorist regime. These denunciations are now being undercut by the drip-drip of allegations about the fate of Mr Khashoggi with even the case for the defence apparently resting on the claim that he was accidentally tortured to death by an overly enthusiastic security officer.   More

‘Outrage’ over Slaying of US Residents Depends on the Nation Responsible

But looking back, we see a totally different response — or more properly, a total lack of response in either government or media — to the equally brutal murder back in 2010 of not just a US legal resident, but a US-born citizen: 19-year-old Furkan Dogan.  Dogan, born and raised in the US to Turkish immigrant parents, was brutally beaten, kicked and then shot in the back and head by several members of the so-called Israeli Defense Force who on May 31, 2010 boarded a Turkish-flagged vessel, the Mavi Marmara in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea…  The Obama administration never raised the slightest protest over the killing of this young US citizen. Indeed, Secretary of State Clinton warned Americans not to participate in the flotilla, essentially saying they were asking for trouble if they did so…  In both of these extra-judicial murders by agents of the governments of US allies the US response has been shameful, though the non-response in the case of young Dogan is far worse given that he was not just a legal resident of the US but a citizen.    More

U.S. OPPOSED TO KOREAS' PLAN FOR NO-FLY ZONE OVER BORDER

Washington and Seoul both publicly insist they are on the same page about dealing with Pyongyang. But behind the scenes, there are growing signs of disagreement as South and North Korea forge ahead with plans to defuse military tensions and rebuild economic ties.

The military accord, sealed during last month’s summit in Pyongyang, is one of the most concrete agreements between the neighbors this year. But U.S. officials have raised concerns that it could undermine defense readiness and comes without substantial progress on denuclearization.  The pact includes a halt in “all hostile acts,” a no-fly zone around the border and a gradual removal of landmines and guard posts within the Demilitarised Zone.  U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo expressed “discontent” with the agreement during a phone call, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said last week in a rare disclosure of discord between the allies. The United States was not likely to openly protest against an inter-Korean initiative, Seoul officials said, but its deep involvement in sanctions enforcement and military operations give it leverage to delay or change the policy.   More