Donald Trump signs off on Saudi Arabia $350 billion arms deal: How the deal engenders a human rights crises in the Middle East region.
It seems foreign policy comes with little hindsight to moral consciousness and regard to human decency with the petulant news that Donald Trump ‘triumphantly’ signed off on a $350 billion dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia. A deal which the main stream media cheer squad labelled a boon for ‘jobs, job, and jobs’.
The deal between the US, the largest manufacturer of arms in the world and the largest spender of its GDP on arms (to a factor of 3 to 1 to its next rival, China) and Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest energy producer and proflagant abuser of human rights violations and despotic regime in the Middle East directly responsible for unrelenting war in the region, including quashing democratic risings in Yemen and neighboring Bahrain was described as a ‘win win deal’ which would take immediate effect.
The agreement, worth $350 billion over 10 years, of which $110 billion would take immediate effect was hailed with bravado by the White House, noting it would ensure a ‘significant expansion of …(the) security relationship’ between the two countries.
Define security and whose security exactly? And security from whom when the US and Saudi Arabia were noted to be the unrepentant aggressors of arms activity and warfare year over year.
Donald Trump and King Salman of Saudi Arabia sign arms deal worth $350 billion over 10 years via @JFXM pic.twitter.com/oJwp0MIf9A
— Ian Fraser (@Ian_Fraser) May 20, 2017
Beyond $109b in military sales, @potus deal w US & Saudi Arabia incs another $250b commercial investment creating hundreds of 1000s US jobs
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) May 20, 2017
Rejoiced Trump, ‘That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States,’
Adding, ‘Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs,’.
The deal which caused some eyeballs to squint was described as a ‘must’ by the defense industry, citing its spectacular fostering of jobs and more jobs.
In a statement by Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors who technology was part of the US-Accord, the outlet jubilantly told of the deal contributing to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 by ‘opening the door for thousands of highly skilled jobs in new economic sectors.’
No immediate mention of how the deal would add to its own bottom line and the wealth of its executive committee as they and the US government looked in the other direction without regard to the incriminating use of force by the Saudi Arabian despotic regime against its own people and its imposition of force in the Middle East region.
Explained the White House in a statement: ’This package of defense equipment and services support the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian threats, while also bolstering the Kingdom’s ability to contribute to counter terrorism operations across the region, reducing the burden on the U.S. military to conduct those operations’.
Which is to wonder who is the real terrorist and facilitator of terrorism and oppression given a long trail of animosity and where does the US summon the courage to use such choice misnomers in what amounts to a blood money deal ensuring the oppression of many for years to come.
The $350 billion Saudi arms deal comes as an extension of year over US arms sales to the region, with the Council on Foreign Relations noting that the Saudi Arabia Kingdom purchasing nearly 10% of US exports from 2011 to 2015.
Prior to arriving in Saudi Arabia, Trump had signaled his intent on out-performing his predecessor, warmonger in chief- Barack Obama, to the discontent of human rights group, Amnesty International which had urged Trump not to sign off on the sales because of the Saudi-led coalition’s conduct in Yemen’s civil war.
The war in Yemen which Saudi Arabia had been funding and backing the government against uprising is now in its third year and has resulted in an epic tragedy of destruction and starvation.
A report via A UNICEF tells of twenty people dying every day, many of curable diseases because barely 45 percent of the health facilities are functioning. The report also tells of over 400,000 Yemeni children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a child dying every 10 minutes from malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory-tract infections.
It should be noted in the last month of his term in office, former President Barack Obama halted the sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia over concerns that the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) was targeting civilians in Yemen. A state of concerns that Trump and his team no longer perceived as problematic.
Today’s $350 billion US arms deal with Saudi Arabia rather than offering a threat to surrounding nations to capitulate to the kingdom’s demands will most likely serve to engender further war as pro insurgency groups in satellite nations like Yemen will seek to align themselves with Iran and other agents in the region- while war profiteers make off with huge bounties to the total disregard of human life, yet again.
Perhaps non ironically, the weekend deal with Saudi Arabia comes after a congressional vote to allow 9/11 families to sue the country for its suspected links to the attackers. To date, the US government has declined to publicly cite Saudi Arabia having any purported involvement with the 9-11 attacks, having taken the extraordinary step of flying (as opposed to containing) Osama bin Laden’s immediate family on the day of the attacks out of the country.
The deal notwithstanding consternation about its moral equivalency perhaps not surprisingly has served to once again ally Trump who has been the focal point of unrelenting attack and speculation against him of imminent impeachment in the ‘good man’s’ corner as the chief negotiator of arms deals scores one for the home team ….
