Saudi Arabia : America's Dark Friend . ( a Comedy of Errors) .

President  Donald Trump gave
12 billion dollars in Military aide to
the  Saudis . Notice
the smile of
Prince Bin Salman .

Another Great  American foreign policy fiasco has to be Saudi Arabia , while (1)>>America's relation with the kingdom has been Rosy , and the oil keeps flowing & if all that matters. The Saudi alliance turned into a great embarrassment to the United States as I will explain. Welcoming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to the White House, Trump said the kingdom has completed $12.5 billion in purchases of planes, missiles and frigates from U.S. companies since his visit to Saudi Arabia last year.  Our Ally in the middle  -east the (2)>>Saudi kingdom hides a dark and sinister problem that has been long ignored by our American government. Saudi Arabia this of course created a very awkward geopolitical situation that of course no one wanted repeated and was one of the reasons why we got a glimpse at the utter absence of any morality between the Saudi and American  alliance . Saudi Arabia was claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate unharmed, a story that changed faster than Donald Trump could say “I talked to them, and they denied everything! Case closed!” A short time later, the Saudis admitted the dissident had disappeared, but maintained that they knew nothing. Shortly after that, their story shifted to Khashoggi having been killed in the consulate by a rogue operator, which quickly became, Oh, f--k it. We killed him in a premeditated fashion, and chopped his body up via bone saw—but the prince knew nothing. Even with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo  was heading to Saudi Arabia pressure continues to mount for the u.s. to do more however the relationship

(4.1)>>The "infamous" High  Five
between Putin and Saudi Prince
Bin Salman ,
note Trump in the background
looking a little
worried.

between president Trump's son-in-law (3)>>Jared Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Lindsay mentioned it's really put the US administration on a tightrope. U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, reportedly advised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on how to (4)>>best survive the mounting scandal surrounding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The New York Times reported Saturday that Kushner and the crown prince continued to chat informally after Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, despite formal White House procedures for contacts with foreign leaders. The New York Times reviewed emails and text messages between the crown prince and Kushner.  The brazen killing did not occur in isolation. If it was the “game-changer” that many see, it was also the latest, most extreme manifestation of a repressive regime that has acted with virtual impunity while maintaining enviably close ties to Washington. The Saudis did what they did because they assumed they could get away with it. It’s safe to say that only a tiny fraction of Americans had heard of Khashoggi before his disappearance. But in a culture riveted by true-crime horror tales, this one is gripping in its cruelty and grotesquerie: The torture, beheading, and dismemberment of an about-to-be-married newspaper columnist who lived in Washington’s Virginia suburbs, carried out in the supposedly safe place of a consulate and apparently recorded besides. The nightmarish account of a single murder has captured the American imagination in a way that thousands of (5)>>Saudi human-rights atrocities in Yemen, many of them victimizing children, have not. (Yemen itself is known to only a fraction of Americans.)

The American and Saudi war in Yemen .

This is the worst example of or American government drawing the red-line , creating a destabilizing situation in the Middle-East . America is currently involved in Syria with 4000 troops , at the send time allied with the Saudis fight a war in Yemen .  The United States is currently waging war in six Middle East countries — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. America’s participation in these wars may include training the local army, using drones to attack suspected terrorists, providing weapons and logistical support to one side side or the other, or sending in American combat troops — sometimes all of the above. None of the countries in which the U.S.military is involved poses a threat to our national security, least of all Yemen.   The war has killed at least 10,000 Yemenis and left more than 22 million people –three-quarters of Yemen’s population – in need of humanitarian aid. At least 8 million Yemenis are on the brink of famine, and 1 million are infected with cholera. The increased US military support for Saudi actions in Yemen is part of a larger policy shift by Trump and his top advisers since he took office, in which Trump voices constant support for Saudi Arabia and perpetual criticism of its regional rival, Iran. On Thursday, for the first time ever, the Senate used its authority under the 1973 War Powers Resolution to order a president to end U.S. military operations abroad ( should have included Syria as well)  — in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Then, in a nonbinding resolution, the Senate voted to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally responsible for the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The effort to stop American involvement in Yemen is still a long way from a done deal. The House would have to pass the resolution by year's end and President Trump would have to sign it — two steps that likely will not happen

NOTES AND COMMENTS :
(1)>>America's relation with the kingdom has been Rosy. From 2009 to 2016, the Obama administration authorized a record $115bn in military sales to Saudi Arabia, far more than any previous administration. Of that total, US and Saudi officials signed formal deals worth about $58bn, and Washington delivered $14bn worth of weaponry. Before he became president, Trump said the “world’s biggest funder of terrorism” was Saudi Arabia – not Iran. So is his latest claim is just political rhetoric?In his 2015 book, ‘Time to Get Tough,’ which was published ahead of the presidential election, Trump wrote: “Then look at Saudi Arabia. It is the world’s biggest funder of terrorism. Saudi Arabia funnels our petrodollars – our very own money – to fund the terrorists that seek to destroy our people, while the Saudis rely on us to protect them.”(2)>>Saudi kingdom hides a dark and sinister problem that has been long ignored by our American government. This is a country where crucifixion is still on the books as a possible sentence for crimes, that holds public beheadings, where women are treated as second class citizens even by the standards of America in the 1920s, where homosexuality is punishable by death, and don't even get me started on how they treat THEIR religious minorities.  Saudi Arabia does supply the United States with counterterrorism intelligence. But as Andrew Miller of the Project on Middle East Democracy points out, stopping it “would be a colossal error . . . when there’s already a strong perception in Congress and with Americans that Saudi Arabia has fueled extremism.  Saudi Arabia represents a paradox for U.S. counterterrorism. On the one hand, the Saudi government is a close partner of the United States on counterterrorism. On the other hand, Saudi support for an array of preachers and non-government organizations contributes to an overall climate of radicalization, making it far harder to counter violent extremism. Both these problems are manifest today as the United States seeks to counter the Islamic State and its allies.(3)>>Jared Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.   Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said three former senior American officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.Kushner “offered the crown prince advice about how to weather the storm” following the journalist’s death, the Times said, citing a Saudi source. Kushner also reportedly became the prince’s “most important defender inside the White House” as the Saudi royal, often referred to by his initials MBS, faced mounting global scrutiny over his alleged involvement in the killing. (4)>>best survive the mounting scandal surrounding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The CIA has reportedly confirmed Mohammed’s complicity in Khashoggi’s slaying. President Trump has dismissed such evidence, however, suggesting last month that even if the prince did personally order the killing, the U.S. would still maintain a close relationship with its wealthy ally. (4.1)>>The "infamous" High  Five . Donald Trump chatted with world leaders during a group photo session at the G20 summit, but walked by without appearing to acknowledge Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The photo shows that he had a vary disappointing glance . I think it was a message , READING it to Donald Trump . A beaming Putin held up his hand to Salman which he quickly grasped before the two sat down side-by-side with big grins on their faces.Their overly-friendly greeting came even though both are at the centre of diplomatic outrages which have made headlines around the world. Putin is in the spotlight after his defence forces opened fire on Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea and the Saudi royal has been linked to the high-profile killing of a journalist in Turkey. Their bizarre greeting came just two days after the Russian leader praised the Prince over the price of oil. (5)>>Saudi human-rights atrocities in Yemen.  Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has to import most of its food and other essentials, and only about half the population is literate. Yemen’s chief asset is the city of Aden, which lies on the Gulf of Aden south of Saudi Arabia and across from Somalia. It is, or was was until recently, a strategic port, one of the  best in the world. Aden was for many years under the control of British Petroleum, Inc., which turned it over to the Yemeni government in 1977. The continuing carnage is the result of a relentless bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates who since last March have been carrying out bombing attacks on Yemen, making no distinction between civilian and military targets. Bombs are hitting homes, schools, factories, power stations, and even hospitals. A Saudi airstrike in mid-June destroyed a UNESCO World Heritage site in Sanaa that had survived for 2,500 years. To date more than 3,000 Yemenis have been killed and at least 11,000 wounded, most of them civilians.Meanwhile the Saudis have  imposed a tight blockade on Yemen that prevents it from importing food, medicine, and other necessities, especially humanitarian aid. Last April Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani called for an immediate ceasefire and for dialogue between the two warring sides. But instead of supporting that call the Obama administration  announced it was speeding up weapons shipments to the Saudis and increasing its intelligence and logistics support.