Trump Threatens Iran; Forgets Yemen, Syria, and His Own Saudi Arms Deals
France 24 reports on Donald Trump's threats against Iran over its protest crackdown, a familiar refrain from Washington. This righteous indignation, however, seems to evaporate when similar or worse repression occurs in 'allied' states. The irony is particularly thick when considering Trump's administration approved $8.1 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2019 (Reuters, 2019), a country with
a demonstrably brutal human rights record against its own populace and a devastating war in Yemen (UN, 2021). The moral compass of US foreign policy consistently points to where its strategic and economic interests, often fueled by defense contractors, reside. One might wonder if the concern for human rights is truly about the suffering, or merely a convenient lever to destabilize regimes deemed
inconvenient. How many civilian deaths does a country need to amass before it loses its 'ally' status? Or is it simply about who's buying our weapons and opposing our rivals? The silence on crackdowns by partners like Saudi Arabia is deafening, exposing a hypocrisy so blatant it could be a campaign slogan.