There was a lot of pomp and circumstance upon Trump’s arrival in Saudi Arabia. It’s important to note, after 8 years of Iranian friendly Obama, the Saudis have strong motives to curry the favor of the new American President.
The visit to Saudi Arabia is historic. It marks the first time in American history a President had chosen to make Saudi Arabia his first international visit. Upon landing in the oil rich gulf state, the President signed a massive arms deal — which could swell to more than $350b over the next decade. The deal includes blackhawk helicopters, a modified version of the Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship, thousands of precision guided weaponry, cargo helicopters, transport helicopters, 115 M1A2s tanks, anti-ballistic missile systems (THAAD), and ‘maritime assets.’
The theory behind arming Saudi Arabia is that it would permit them to handle Iran in the Persian Gulf, granting us license to throw a few logs on the fire and doze off a bit while they do all the work for a change. All that sounds well and good, especially since the money will be spent with our weapons manufacturers, who employ thousands of Americans. But what about all of the stuff Trump said about Saudi Arabia during the campaign? Does that count for anything, or was it just election time shit talking?
Here’s Trump chastising Clinton for accepting Saudi money, a country that ‘kills women’ and ‘treat women horribly.’
Or what about the time Trump told The Morning Shill that Saudi Arabia was arming ISIS?
This is the “if, then” logic I want to put on the table for you to think about. If Saudi Arabia funds radical Islam and ISIS, like Trump said, then should we be selling them advanced weaponry?
One minor detail that is vexing me today. All of the conservatards are out in force, praising Melania Trump for not wearing a headscarf, which she’s 100% right for doing. 
But Michelle Obama didn’t wear one either. I don’t know why people are saying she did wear one.
As a matter of fact, President Trump actually had the stones to criticize Michelle for doing so back then, calling it an insult.
Many people are saying it was wonderful that Mrs. Obama refused to wear a scarf in Saudi Arabia, but they were insulted.We have enuf enemies
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2015
If we’re gonna talk about this ‘historic trip’, let’s be honest about it then.
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perhaps the deep state will lay off Trump for time in lieu of his record weapons brokering … after all, that’s what it’s all about
..it’s also about other things, including: propping-up our petrodollar partner and supporting an enemy of Israel’s challenger, Iran.
On Trump’s next stop in the region, there’ll be a lot of even more sophisticated arms provided – – only this next customer doesn’t pay a dime for ’em.
however this partner provides invaluable intel which he must leak to the Russians
you out-did yourself right there:
– – only this next customer doesn’t pay a dime for ’em.
It’s more like humiliating Trump on behalf of Crooked Klinton – making Trump go bow down to sand chimps.
Oh look – Fly is coming around to the fact that Trump is just a shit talker. Lolz
He’s really taking care of the working man too eh? https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitics/videos/1554416077923210/
I am not a shill like you Benny. Notice how I speak the truth and don’t apologize for people , like all of you did with Hillary?
You spoke the truth in this post, for a change. Before this, you’ve been speaking every evidence-free Right Wing conspiracy theory in the book.
Maybe your’e finally catching on to the fact that Trump & other Republicans don’t believe a word that comes out of their own mouths.
Republicans and Republican media like Fox & Breitbart, bash Dems, no matter what Dems do. And they praise Republicans, no matter what Republicans do. Even when Repubs & Dems do exactly the same things, they praise Repubs for it, and bash Dems for it.
Republican media does this nonstop. That’s why Bill Maher says Republicans are about 2 things 1) Bashing Dems and 2) Giving tax cuts to the .01%. Republicans have no beliefs, policies, or principles aside from that. No beliefs about Saudi Arabia, or about big banks, or about anything else.
Why must you be so frantic, frog? What is your point?
And Fly, I think Trump just made the Saudi’s his bitch.
Bill Maher? Frog, could you pick a favorite book I should read from this political historian?
Boom!
Check out the sun shining thru Obama’s ear.
There’s no changes worthy of note otherwise, with the new President.
LOL. Yup.
That sword dance is the craziest shit ever. Is the Secret Service nuts ? The hand is quicker than the eye ! just saying…
BTW, of course she should have worn a scarf. It’s their culture and we are visiting. Pandering to the folks back home by offending the host culture doesn’t make you a hero ..quite the opposite. And it plays in the narrative that our enemies promote about the arrogant American. It’s just a freakin scarf …not genital mutilation for WTFsake.
Ferd
I disagree. The scarf is only for women and is wrong. A strong woman should never cede to barbaric stupid traditions founded in fairy tale religious books.
Should an aborigine visit your daughter’s middle school and address the assembly in his native nakedness? To our towel-headed partners, same thing.
How is it the same thing?
First off, aboriginals aren’t even human. Second of all, the scarf is a religion inspired DEMAND for women only. Fuck that and their make believe book of hatred.
The question for you ferd is why you would allow a naked man to greet your young daughter simply to appeal to his sense of customary norms. The world is not subjective.
So when an Arab woman visits London should she feel obligated to remove her head scarf because it’s not the culture of British women? No. Therefore Michelle and Melania shouldn’t feel obligated to don a scarf.
350 B should feed the beast and get Mc.Cain off his back for a while
Who cares. Let them arm up and get it on already. Civil wars are healthy and lead to peace. Supposedly. America First wants to vacation in Europe without rape gangs roaming around killing everyone with a fucking car. Complicated problems are always solved by simple solutions.
Excellent post! Why would the First Lady cover her face just because of a backward barbarian tribal custom? Fuck them.
You know how I feel about the guy – he’s a slimy piece of shit that ran his mouth on subjects he knew nothing about. But I am genuinely curious as to what your opinion of this arms deals is?
In case you don’t understand my point – who is more important to you, your daughter or the Aborigine??
Poop poop platter
Let them do the heavy lifting. We crush ISIS eventually with help and fuck Iran. They’ll likely be bombed at some point. Crush the theocracy and let the people take their country back.
Hell yeah. Worked great in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Saudi Arabia at some point will have to give more rights to women as their culture hopefully normalizes.
Some individual Saudi citizens are terrorists– not the government itself. Al Qaeda terrorists hate the Saudi government every bit as much as they hate the U.S.
I have explained this before. But of course no one listens to the truth here. So I am explaining it again.
We listen but you’re so wrong. Check out Adam Curtis’ documentary ‘Bitter Lake’ – he does a good job explaining it – better than I could here.
There are many views on this. I don’t completely disagree with Curtis’s views. The situation is even more complex than what I have typed. But almost no one here gets complex ideas anyway, so I won’t type everything I think about this.
I’ll just say that I agree with Curtis that Wahhabism, a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, is supported by the Saudi government, and does overlap with some terrorist ideas and movements.
Of course, many things that the U.S. government does also feed into terrorism. So we too are guilty of feeding into terrorism– in our case with our drones and unnecessary invasions of countries.
The last point I’ll mention, is that in Saudi, as in many ME countries, the clerics hold a lot of power over the government– actually holding more power than the government itself does.
If the Saudi government pisses off the clerics, the government could fall. So the government has to tiptoe around the clerics’ wishes. Therefore the government may be doing the best it can to bring the country into the modern world and away from terrorism– but at a pace that will not piss off the clerics too much.
So, even if the government wanted to get rid of Wahhabism today, they couldn’t do that, because the powerful clerics wouldn’t stand for it. The government itself would be history the next day.
So, we’re better off supporting the Saudi government that is not totally giving in to the clerics– than we would be if we just let that government fall. If it fell, the powerful clerics would undoubtedly swoop into the power vacuum and install a far more rigid more fundamentalist more anti-Western government than is there now.
That’s the choice we always have in the ME, if we are going to support someone– to support the worst guys or the less bad guys. There are no good guys there, as it’s a brutal war torn place where people are doing crazy brutal things in order to survive.
The Saudi government is less bad than the Saudi clerics, and less bad than the government that would be there if the current government fell & the clerics had full reign.
However, that does not make the Saudi government wonderful. Nor does it lead me to the conclusion that we ought to be selling them lots of weapons.
For fucks sake people. Have some confidence in yourselves and our cool country. Put the scarf on if it helps our cause, don’t if it doesn’t. I argue that portraying ourselves as the ugly American does not serve our interests …so we should not do it. Also, sticking our hair in their face in their holy land will not win more freedom for Saudi women, it is more likely to stir a reaction the leads these assholes to be inclined to oppress them more. Respectful engagement is the way to go. When Trump goes to certain places in Israel, he’ll likely cover that beautiful hair of his with a yarmulke …as he should …interesting that no one will bitch about that.
Frog is not the only one who is pre-programmed by others to react like a fool – think for yourselves.
I am one of the very few people telling the truth here. But perhaps I am being a fool, because truth is wasted on people who prefer to believe lies.
It’s funny how brainwashed pre-programmed people love to call me pre-programmed–, on this site where almost all commenters have been programmed to bash progressives nonstop– and only very very occasionally to say anything bad about Right Wingers. People here claiming to dislike both parties equally need to go back & read their own comments– or posts, in Fly’s case.
I have opinions about head coverings in Saudi and in Israel. You would not be able to guess what they are, I am sure. But since you have already decided my opinions are pre-programmed, I won’t share them with you.