TEARS FOR KASHOGGI BUT NOT FOR GENOCIDE IN YEMEN
For decades during which tens of thousands of people have died at the hands of the Saudi monarchy, the U.S. government proclaimed the Saudi kings their great friends and allies. Whether Republican or Democrat it was all the same. Now there is outrage over their murder of Kashoggi while the Yemeni people are facing bombings, famine and genocide at the hands of the royal family with U.S. military support.
It is painful to see all the tears for Kashoggi while no action on Yemen is planned except a resolution in Congress that is not considered urgent even as the bombing intensifies.
The U.S. Saudi alliance goes back decades. First England and then the U.S. government supported the absolutist reign of the Saudi kings for two purposes: to help put down the Arab masses in their fight to free themselves from foreign domination and to control the vast oil fields of Saudi Arabia. They promised the Saudi kings weapons, money, political recognition and the right of the kings to total control and wealth if they carried out the interests of the U.S. capitalists, especially the oil companies.
So-called liberal Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that “the defense of Saudi Arabia is vital to the defense of the United States.” On 14 February 1945, he met with King Ibn Saud aboard the USS QUINCY to discuss the creation of Israel on Palestinian land.
The Trump family has deep ties to the Saudi monarchy both personally and on behalf of war profiteers and oil companies. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was acting as ambassador without confirmation. Recently Trump, always a salesman for the war profiteering U.S. military corporations, signed a $110 billion arms sale with King Al Saud, part of a $350 billion economic and military package.
DEMOCRATS LOVE THE SAUDI KINGS, ESPECIALLY HILLARY CLINTON
But it’s not just the Republicans. President Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton loved the Saudi kings. According to the International Business Times BT during the three full years of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state (FY 2010-12), the department approved commercial arms sales worth a total of $165 billion to twenty nations whose governments had given to the Clinton Foundation — nearly double the total sales to those countries approved in FY 2006-08, during President George W. Bush’s second term.
Arms exports to Saudi Arabia totaling $8 billion were approved in FY 2010-12 — up from $4.1 billion in FY 2006-08 — including $29 billion worth of advanced fighter jets delivered by a consortium of American defense contractors led by Boeing. In the years before Clinton became secretary of state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, while Boeing contributed $900,000 to the foundation just two months before the deal was finalized.
According to IBT, governments and corporations involved in the arms deals approved by the State Department have contributed between $54 million and $141 million to the Clinton Foundation, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to the Clinton family in the form of speaking fees.
KASHOGGI MURDER UPSET CAPITALISTS – HE WAS ONE OF THEM.
Kashoggi comes from an ultra rich family loyal to the royal family. He became a critic of the Kings in order to protect the legitimacy of their rule. His uncle was the infamous Adnan Kashoggi, who helped Oliver North provide weapons to the brutal contras (right wing death squads) in Nicaragua. These arms were banned by Congress, but North (now head of the NRA) funded the arms by importing drugs which then flooded the U.S. The main airports that received these shipments of drugs were New Orleans military bases. Just recently the Saudis murdered another journalist who was a real opponent of the Saudi kings, and beheaded a domestic worker (they are treated like slaves in Saudi Arabia) with no mention in the big business media.
GENOCIDE IN YEMEN
Yemen had actually freed itself from the grips of the Saudi regime decades ago and attempted to build a socialist country. This was militarily crushed by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi monarchy wants to annex Yemen and prevent the masses from reasserting their independence. To this end, with U.S. weapons and military support, tens of thousands of Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been murdered. Because of the bombing of sewage plants and blockade of medicine by the Saudis, Yemen is facing the biggest cholera epidemic in world history. The continued Saudi/U.S. assault on Yemen puts 14 million Yemenis at risk of death by starvation and disease.
CONGRESS – A LIMP RESOLUTION. CUT ALL TIES TO THE HOUSE OF SAUD
We are talking about out genocide of civilians by a fascist government that has been going on for years. Yet Congress is merely “considering” a resolution against more arms to the Saudi kings. Even this has been sitting in Congress with no urgency or determination to pass it. Both parties of capitalism, the Democrats and Republicans are wary of upsetting their loyal partner in the Middle East. But we workers have no problem demanding an end to all U.S. support for the Saudi kings and their war against Yemen—not with our tax dollars and not in our name.