Trump Loves Saudi Autocrats, Arab Boots on the Ground, and Other Bad Ideas

Rasa - During his upcoming visit to Riyadh, President Donald Trump is set to unveil a plan for an “Arab NATO” to unify some Arab nations in the region under a NATO-style command structure “to fight terrorism and to keep Iran in check.”

News ID: 429758

Date: 19 May 2017 - 23:51

RNA - Trump has been discussing this plan with Riyadh for a while now, creating an organization which the US wouldn’t be a member of, but would retain massive influence, and presumably control over. Trump will also use his upcoming trip to announce one of the largest arms deals in US history - somewhere in the neighborhood of $98bn to $128bn worth of arms. That could add up to $350bn over ten years.

That could also strengthen US ties to an autocratic regime that is fueling the very extremism, intolerance and violence that the US government purports to eradicate. This is also a regime that:

-Exports an extremist interpretation of Islam, Wahhabism, around the globe.

-Funds terrorism and as Hillary Clinton puts it, “constitutes the most significant source of funding to terrorist groups worldwide.”

-Represses religious minorities and beheads peaceful opposition leaders.

-Forbids free speech and free association.

-Is the most misogynist, gender-segregated country in the world.

-Offers no political freedom and bans national elections, political parties, unions, and civic organizations.

-Is engaged in a dirty war on Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

-Helps maintain the world’s destructive dependence on oil.

The problem is, all this and more hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from finding new ways to arm, aid, and abet the ruthless Saudi regime. After all, what the US president does offer to Saudi Arabia and other repressive regimes has substantial and long-standing bipartisan support. Such autocratic, anti-democratic regimes buy US arms, fight US wars, and host scores of US military bases and outposts, which happen to be homes to tens of thousands of US occupying troops.

In the case of Saudi Arabia, US military bases have provided all sorts of support to help crush pro-democracy protests and genuine efforts for political and democratic reforms in base host Bahrain. The silencing of the critics of human rights abuses in Bahrain continues apace, violently cracking down on pro-democracy leaders and demonstrators since 2011 – while the UN Human Rights Council continues to look the other way. This has left the US government complicit in Saudi human rights violations and crimes committed against humanity in Bahrain. Not that the Trump White House cares!

Most catastrophically, though, American military bases and outposts in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, and the UAE have helped generate and fuel Wahhabi-Takfiri terrorism and the radical militancy that has spread throughout the Greater Middle East and led to terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States. The presence of such bases and troops in Muslim holy lands has been a major recruiting tool for ISIL and Al-Qaeda terrorist groups, which have been inspiring many Wahhabists with the potent combination of a millennium-old theological argument and stunning battlefield victories. Just how bad things are at present can be gleaned from the occasional news stories trickling out of, for example, Bahrain – nationwide protests and regime crackdowns that have largely disappeared from the front pages of daily newspapers and the nightly TV news roundup.

Trump’s position to prop up the Saudi vassals, therefore, is not only illegal and immoral, it’s ineffective and impossible. It’s deployed in service of bad ideas. With the Trump administration seeking to further arm, aid, and abet the ruthless Saudi regime, and even form an “Arab NATO” to unify autocratic Arab nations in the region under a NATO-style command structure, US-led, Saudi-backed terrorism, extremism, sectarian warfare and violence, human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes committed against humanity are likely to escalate and fuel world blowback for years to come.

In summation, it does not require extensive research on Riyadh or Washington to conclude that more US arms to the regional vassal and an “Arab NATO” will no more bring stability to the region than the larger troop deployment approved by President Trump to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan, or an even greater commitment of American forces. So long as America’s Saudi vassals and others are wracked by sectarianism, Wahhabism, extremism, outmoded ideologies and corruption, they will never command the support of people and so will be unable to defeat ISIL and Al-Qaeda.

Similarly, past US efforts to contain Iran’s growing influence in the region have all come to naught, and there is no reason to assume that the Trump administration will prove any more successful at this than its predecessors. All we can expect from this new gambit, then, is another futile round of warmongering and Iran bashing campaign.

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