Trump Just Sold Billions of Dollars of Sophisticated Weapons to a State He Said Masterminded 9/11
If he can change his mind so violently on Saudi Arabia, what guarantees can he give Israel?
Chemi Shalev May 21, 2017 1:09 PM
When President Gerald Ford was descending off the gangway of Air Force 1 at the start of his visit to Austria in 1975, his knee buckled and he tumbled unceremoniously onto the tarmac. In a speech that he gave during a visit to Poland in 1977, Jimmy Carter’s bungling translator said that Carter would like to “to get to know the Poles carnally” and that he has left America “with no intention to return.” On a visit to Brazil in 1982, Ronald Reagan toasted its president and “the proud people of Bolivia.” In Tokyo in 1992, George Bush threw up directly onto his host, the prime minister of Japan. At a G-8 Summit in 2006, George W. Bush startled Angela Merkel when he started to massage her shoulders without any prior warning. And in 2011, at a G-20 summit, a microphone picked up French President Sarkozy telling Obama “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar, “and Obama replying “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you.”
So Donald Trump can rest assured that if he commits a faux pas on his first trip overseas, which began on Saturday with a spectacular reception in Riyadh, he certainly won’t be the first or the last president to do so. Trump’s problem, however, is that he doesn’t have too much room to maneuver. Another embarrassing mistake, another offensive remark, another self-defeating reaction to the semi-automatic barrage of scandals that hits him and his White House day in and day out, and Trump could reach the tipping point that could turn the prospect of his impeachment from wild speculation to a reasonable possibility.
Even as he was flying to Saudi Arabia, the blows never stopped coming. His advisers said Trump hadn’t slept much, and for good reason. First came the news of how he had badmouthed ousted FBI director James Comey as a “nut job” in his meeting with Russians; then, that a senior figure in the White House, who is particularly close to Trump, was a “person of interest” in the FBI investigation of the ties between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin. The two leading candidates for the dishonorable mention were Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump could probably absorb losing Bannon, but if Kushner, the father of his grandchildren, is embroiled in a criminal investigation, Trump could blow his top. But far more threatening for Trump, at least in the short term, is the announcement that Comey would be testifying publicly before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Comey’s testimony is sure to become the greatest blockbuster show on earth, as well as a mortal danger to Trump’s presidency. Notwithstanding the complaints against Comey on both sides of the political aisle for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, he still commands immeasurably more respect on Capitol Hill and among the public than does Trump. Comey will come to the intelligence committee as the underdog who has been wronged and, though he won’t admit it, revenge will be his first priority.
This is the same Saudi Arabia that Trump bluntly accused of masterminding 9/11, of loving to kill gays and enslaving women, the same country that Trump said, after his election, should be banned from exporting any oil to the United States. But this was a few days before the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began to court Trump, four months before his meeting in the White House was described as a turning point in relations between the two countries, seven months before Trump was received by the Saudi royal family with pomp, parades, horses and dancing princes. It’s tempting to say that Trump was welcomed as if he was Lawrence of Arabia, were it not for the fact that Lawrence disliked King Saud and said his rule would introduce extremist Wahhabist Islam to the Arabian peninsula. This is the same Islam that Trump said hates America, and therefore requires a travel ban to protect it.
Trump’s Israeli hosts, who are nervously anticipating his arrival on Monday, pointed to the half full part of the glass. After all, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government shared Saudi Arabia’s disdain for Barack Obama, for his kneejerk liberal concern about human rights and especially for the nuclear deal that he signed with Iran. The two capitals were jointly disappointed with the reelection of Iranian President Hassan Rohani over the weekend, because a victory of his hardline line opponent Ibrahim Raisi and his anti-American supporters who oppose the nuclear deal would have made it easier to undermine and ultimately scuttle it. Israel also understands and accepts the need to arm Saudi Arabia to the teeth so it can resist Iranian expansionism and support for terror and, if necessary, meet them head on the battlefield as well. Israel, however, is also probably terrified that Trump, who just gave away Israel’s most sensitive secrets, will be leading the way.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.790551?utm_content=%2Fus-news%2F1.790551&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_campaign=shivuk-haaretz-news
= new reply since forum marked as read
Will Americans ever get a straight answer about this grievous hypocritical money-grubbing contradiction from republican Comrade Casino? Probably not, since the KGOP has America by the short hairs.
Saudi Arabia Gives Hero’s Welcome to President Who Said It Was Behind 9/11
"“Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis,” Trump informed Fox & Friends in February 2016. “It was Saudi — take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents.”
The rest: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/05/saudis-give-heros-welcome-to-man-who-said-it-did-9-11.html
