A Dubious Ally

Trump's reluctance to publicly denounce Saudi Arabia and the brutal dictatorship of its monarchy should come as little surprise as the support of and dependence on this country's reigning royal leadership has willingly existed for many decades under the auspices of both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Our complicity in the proxy war with Iran currently being waged in Yemen, which has resulted in the displacement of millions and the death of hundreds of thousands through overt violence, the presence of untreated disease, and an  ongoing famine had been the most recent example of our role in aiding in the enactment of war crimes against one of the poorest countries in the world. This aid has come in the form of massive arms sales and actual on the ground assistance in bomb targeting and a variety of special ops clandestine activity within the Yemeni boarders. Of course, the reliance on Saudi oil reserves has been a perennial and underlying cornerstone of our friendly policy to this thoroughly undemocratic regime.

The revelation of the likely murder of long time Saudi journalist and consultant to the royal family, Jamal Khashoggi, at the hands of Saudi operatives within the walls of the Saudi Embassy in Turkey has underscored the moral dilemma of our support of the Saudi regime in light of this current atrocity as well as the aforementioned brutality being perpetrated upon the Yemeni population.

Instead of condemning, reevaluating our relationship with the Saudi government, or stating our intention to hold the those responsible for this crime accountable, Trump rather shamelessly announced the economic necessity to maintain the symbiotic relationship with one of our largest clients in spite of its apparent horrific transgression. In so doing, Trump elevated the value of economic gain over that of an adherence to the value of human rights. In light of ongoing antagonism directed to members of the press in calling them, among other things, 'enemies of the people', Trump's statement is hardly surprising. Fortunately, his hand might be forced to abide by the Magnitsky Act which mandates global enforcement of the US law allowing the imposition of sanctions and the freezing of assets upon any country engaging in the violation of human rights.

In a ideal world, the brutal murder of a Washington Post correspondent and a permanent resident of the United States at the hands the Saudi regime would cause us to abandon our relationship with such a dubious 'ally'. Under our current leadership, such a principled position seems sadly unlikely.