Visit to Saudi Arabia
Trump’s path
Regarding “Trump gives $110B arms deal to Saudis amid a warm embrace” (Page A1, Sunday), President Donald Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia was notable by two major efforts: 1) the marketing of American weapons to the kingdom, and 2) a speech that came squarely down on the side of the Sunnis in the physical and ideological battles with the Shiites. A most important element of this bias was the continuing demonization of Iran.
Trump struck a weapons deal that could expand up to $350 billion over 10 years and praised it as a great American jobs program. This is no surprise, as Trump is nothing if not a deal-maker. More puzzling is his decision to so clearly support the Saudi branch of the Sunni religion known as Wahhabism.
Saudi Arabia, via Wahhabism, is the nursery of Middle East terrorism. It has funded its spread through mosques and madrassas throughout the region as well as directly funded so-called “rebel” groups (ISIS, al-Qaida, al-Nusrah) battling governments in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Americans should never forget that 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.
It is an understated story in mainstream media, but the tragedy of Yemen is so horrendous it’s difficult to put into words. For almost two years Saudi Arabia has been relentlessly bombing the country in support of an ousted regime. Thousands of civilians have died and millions are at risk of famine.
Many Americans, even those who did not vote for Trump, were hopeful that he would begin to take a different path in foreign policy, beginning a process of extricating the U.S. from its many conflicts in the Middle East. Perhaps some are still hopeful, but his speech did not appear to be a precursor to peace.