US Sells F-35s to Saudis, Worries About China, Not Yemen
Trump's plan to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia, as highlighted by the NYT, triggers Pentagon 'concerns' over China's access to technology. This fear, however, eclipses the documented reality: Saudi Arabia has used US-supplied weaponry to bomb Yemen for years, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. According to ACLED data, over 150,000 people have died in the conflict, many from
Saudi-led coalition strikes using US arms. So, the immediate danger isn't hypothetical Chinese IP theft, but the very real Saudi-led coalition's continued use of advanced US jets to devastate a neighboring country. One might wonder if the Pentagon's 'national security' only protects intellectual property, and not, say, the lives of Yemeni civilians. (Or perhaps, American complicity isn't as
SEO-friendly as 'China threat'.)