Trump Pitches F-35s to Saudis, Ignores Saudi Yemen War
Trump's F-35 offer to Saudi Arabia is presented as a strategic move to secure 'deals' and facilitate Saudi-Israeli normalization. This isn't just about selling jets; it's about legitimizing a regime that's been waging a brutal, US-enabled war in Yemen since 2014, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths and one of the worst humanitarian crises on Earth. The 'first Arab country to acquire jets'
framing carefully sidesteps Saudi Arabia's existing arsenal of US-made F-15s, which have, according to numerous UN reports, been used to bomb Yemeni hospitals and civilian infrastructure. So, Washington, ever the principled arms dealer, will now upgrade Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with fifth-generation fighters. This same MBS the CIA linked to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi (which Riyadh
denies). The 'deal' is less about regional peace and more about Lockheed Martin's stock prices and Saudi fealty to a US-led regional order, irrespective of the rivers of blood already spilled by their current American-supplied weaponry. One might wonder what new 'regional stability' an F-35-equipped Saudi Arabia will bring to its neighbors, given its track record. Surely, another 'ironclad
security relationship' will solve everything.