Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
The only thing that explains this unprecedented snub is OPEC countries, no doubt at Russia’s urging, being hell-bent on showing that they no longer need the United States … for anything. This, because they now have the backing of China as a more indulging economic superpower, and of Russia as a nuclear power that is… Read more.
President Biden’s first state visit to the Middle East is being defined by the superficial way he greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and by the political way they discussed the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In fact, reporters are dogging Biden and his team with questions about Khashoggi – as if his murder… Read more.
To paraphrase the catchphrase Biden’s former boss made famous: Yes It Can. Many thought that famous picture of US President George W. Bush holding hands with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah showed the polite gesture of a young president aiding an old king. In fact, it betrayed the geopolitical reality of an old king aiding a… Read more.
But that’s BS. On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never left. Turkish investigators allege a Saudi hit team was waiting for him. They report he was killed almost immediately and that his body was dismembered. To this day his remains have not been found. Saudi public prosecutors have… Read more.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) exposed his perfidy and Trump’s cupidity. The prevailing feature of President Trump’s foreign policy is the way he courts world leaders with whom he has, or is scheming to establish, personal financial ties. Nothing betrayed this quite like the way he salivated at the prospect of striking deals… Read more.
And plans to build a $500m city as restitution. Arguably, successive kings of Saudi Arabia have had the blood of Americans on their hands. Most notable of course is the blood of those who perished on 9/11. This is why it’s so perplexing that successive presidents of the United States have been so willing to… Read more.
Yes, this is cause for celebration. Saudi Arabia was the only country still denying women this basic human right. Granted, women there are still living in a time warp. But they are getting their panoply of civil rights with more “deliberate speed” than women, to say nothing of blacks, in America got theirs. Saudi Arabia has… Read more.
Donald Trump assured the world that the only thing needed for peace in the Middle East was his ability to broker a deal and his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s ability to manage it. He did it not only as political schtick throughout the campaign but even as government policy during the early days of his presidency.… Read more.
President Trump received near-universal praise for his state visit to Saudi Arabia in late May. But I found this praise utterly bemusing and delineated the reasons why in “WTF: Saudis Giving Islamophobic Trump the Royal Treatment,” May 20, 2017. Evidently, those praising him didn’t bother to ask why he made this cradle of terrorism his… Read more.
I know, complaining about President Trump’s hypocrisy is rather like complaining about a prostitute’s promiscuity. Except that the former portends consequences that could destroy a country (even the whole world), which makes those the latter portends seem like nothing more than a genital itch. That said, Trump’s America-First policy towards Cuba amounts to little more… Read more.
