The Trump Administration’s CIA has determined what the rest of the world has known for many weeks: the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, ordered the brutal murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It has long been clear the Donald Trump hasn’t wanted to do anything about it. Now he says that we need Saudi Arabia to fight Iran. In other words, use worse guys to fight bad guys?
How the US Uses Godawful Guys to Fight Bad Guys
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Possibly the Saudis have dirt on Trump.
The (facade of the) US needs Saudi Arabia all right.
SA represents the last bastion of oil exporting states to require payment in US dollars.
SA’s (and OPEC’s) cooperation in the past was crucial to US achieving global economic dominance.
The rest of the world has apparently tired of endless US bullying and has begun to trade oil in local currencies: e.g. Venezuela the possessor of the largest recorded crude oil reserves (see CIA world factbook … who else!?!) China is the #2 (same source) crude oil importer. It ranks behind only the US, so, for this discussion, it is essentially the world’s largest crude importer. China has started to trade in its yuan.
Iran rates the intense saber-rattling it receives for having the nerve to sit atop the world’s #4 proven crude reserves …. but refuses to meekly turn it over to US petro-Corps.
The USA struck out against Iraq after the 9/11 attacks instead of the Saudis, who actually funded the attacks and comprised 15 of the 19 operatives who flew the attacking airplanes.
Then the USA let the attackers’ Saudi compatriots fly freely back to Saudi Arabia, without the mildest of interrogation, while all other US air travel was grounded in the name of security.
Why am I not surprised now that the murder of a journalist (that class of person who, when revealing true things not in conformance with US propaganda, are now widely dismissed as fake) now registers as being of little or no importance in the US power scheme?
MOMCOM, the Military Oil Media Complex will continue to provide plausible unifying nationalistic propaganda concepts, which function as “wooden decoy ducks” for flocks of “citizen ducks” to assimilate themselves to as “the truths of the mobs” used by Republicans and Democrats to divert public attention from the inconsistencies that lie there for those still able to remember, doubt, and think.
” CIA has determined ”
but … but … I’ve repeatedly been told that everything the CIA says is a lie. Ergo, not only is MBS innocent, but Khashoggi is still alive!
Chain-yanking aside, we’ve been playing that game for decades. Remember playing Iran off against Iraq? Support one for a few years, support the other for a while, sell both of them arms, sit back and watch the fireworks. Brilliant! Support Israel while ignoring the fact that they’re 80% of the trouble in the ME, support brutal dictators until such time as it becomes politically expedient to kill them, etc, etc.
“but … but … I’ve repeatedly been told that everything the CIA says is a lie.”
[I think you exaggerate for effect, CH]
“Ergo, not only is MBS innocent, but Khashoggi is still alive!”
I don’t like to run with the herd over a cliff any more than I like to be run over by it by stopping in the middle of a stampede.
That’s why I reserve judgement, consider many possibilities, and avoid leaping to conclusions.
But if someone reliably lied every time he spoke then it would be a simple matter to always believe the opposite of what he says to know the truth.
Since I (and 99.9999+ percent of us) have the luxury of not having to make a decision based on partial information, I can speculate interminably, should I choose to do so, without having to arrive at a certainty.
Without the body it IS possible the CIA has Khashoggi in Guantanamo, even though from my feeble, low information position I might not think it likely, even if it were not out of character for the CIA to do so.
Like Democrat Schumer said for Trump to hear, It’s not wise to get on the wrong side of the CIA.
> [I think you exaggerate for effect, CH]
Why yes, yes I do – but the fact remains that I’ve heard that very argument presented as a refutation of DastardlyRussiansGate a large number of times on this very forum.
If that’s true, then Kashoggi is still alive and well and living in Bolivia.
> … I reserve judgement, consider many possibilities, and avoid leaping to conclusions.
Oh. I must have misunderstood several of your earlier posts.
>:-D
But if someone reliably lied every time he spoke then it would be a simple matter to always believe the opposite of what he says to know the truth.
“Oh. I must have misunderstood several of your earlier posts.”
Very possible.
re: “Oh. I must have misunderstood several of your earlier posts.”
> Very possible.
hm. I was under the impression that you had leapt to conclusions without reserving judgement or considering any other possibilities (let alone well-documented evidence to the contrary) in each of the following cases.
=-> DastardlyRussiansGate
=-> Slaveholding Authoritarian Founding Fathers selling out their own states in favor of granting power to other states
=-> This humble author’s religious affiliation with the DNC and/or HRC.
If I am wrong, then I most humbly await your illumination …
No, CH.
You jumped to conclusions that the Russians installed Trump in the presidency just because Hillary said so and couldn’t think of any other reason that would explain how she could have lost.
So you jumped into the screaming raging mob blaming Putin.
Give an empty American head something simple to scream about and it’s happy as a pig in shit.
Poor little fool.
Oh … so you’re still reserving judgement and considering options on on DastardlyRussiansGate and The Four Fathers?
Bullshit.
“Chain-yanking aside, we’ve been playing that game for decades. Remember playing Iran off against Iraq?”
We’ve (USA) been playing that game (at least) since letting Germany and Russia kill each other off during WWII by staying out of the European war until one side won, and then declaring the other beaten down winning side to be our enemy.
I thought my generation might understand this game and somehow be different. But no, the adults of today are unbelievably the same as their parents were fifty years ago.
If the few couldn’t get the many to fight each other they’d be in big trouble.
Meanwhile, with few abatements, the US-supported Saudi war on Yemen continues – out of sight (at least if one lives in the US and doesn’t make a livelihood by selling weapons to the Saudis), out of mind….
Henri