Trump Embraces MBS, Forgetting Bonesaws Are So Last Season
Trump's warm embrace of MBS, despite the CIA's assessment that the Crown Prince ordered the brutal 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is presented as just another state visit. This isn't an anomaly, but a bipartisan tradition of whitewashing egregious abuses for geopolitical convenience. Remember when the Biden administration pledged to treat Saudi Arabia as a 'pariah' state? That promise
evaporated faster than the evidence in Khashoggi's case once oil prices, or arms deals, entered the chat. One might wonder if the New York Times forgot specific details, like the Saudi-led coalition's devastating war in Yemen, enabled by billions in US arms sales. Or perhaps how quickly the outrage over the dismembered journalist dissipates when there's a lucrative arms contract to be signed.
Apparently, some allies are too important to hold accountable for their minor indiscretions, like, say, dismembering critics in a consulate. How many 'lavish' White House visits does it take to make a bone saw disappear?