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MBS was accepted by the previous administration because Jared Kushner was convinced he was key to a Palestinian-Israeli peace treaty. That gave Erdogan leverage

MBS was accepted by the previous administration because Jared Kushner was convinced he was key to a Palestinian-Israeli peace treaty. That gave Erdogan leverage over the US, when he kept pounding the media drum with the footage he had of the Khashoggi murder. He used that to get the US to abandon the Syrian Kurds. We haven't yet seen if the new administration will view MBS the same way, but I doubt it. We've had two populist presidents in a row lose European control because they thought they knew better than their advisors about the Middle East. (Obama's version was surrendering Crimea to Putin so that Putin would give him an out for his Syrian "red line" blunder). This administration seems more boring and professional, like the staff have taken over the government for 4 years. So I don't think they have any misunderstanding of who MBS is and what value he does and doesn't provide.

AtlasBarfed 5y ago
"MBS was accepted by the previous administration ..." I would like to paint Trump as the only bad apple, but the Saudis have likely paid off every American President in the last 40 years with a flood of shadow money. He was accepted by the previous administration because Trump got a healthy dose of that shadow money (there's a half-dozen on the front page of google search results alone). There's a half dozen stories about this for Trump. Here's one for Obama: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/29/middleman-helped-saudi-give-obama-inaugural/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/29/middleman-helped-saudi... We now know the inauguration fund is a big shadow slush fund for presidents. So is the presidential library, and the usual post-term speech circuit and "consulting". These people and power structures exist because of concentrated oil wealth, and we should move towards alternative energy and BEVs to bankrupt these corrupt regimes and the corruption they exert on our country.
quickthrowman 5y ago
> (Obama's version was surrendering Crimea to Putin so that Putin would give him an out for his Syrian "red line" blunder). What approach would you have taken to prevent Vladimir Putin from taking back Crimea? It’s a majority Russian area where they hold a long term naval base lease. The peninsula in question was gifted to Ukraine by the USSR in 1954. Also keep in mind the fact that Russia has nuclear weapons, and any direct military conflict with Russia has the potential to go nuclear. How do you proceed to prevent Russia from annexing Crimea?

AtlasBarfed 5y ago

"MBS was accepted by the previous administration ..." I would like to paint Trump as the only bad apple, but the Saudis have likely paid off every American President in the last 40 years with a flood of shadow money. He was accepted by the previous administration because Trump got a healthy dose of that shadow money (there's a half-dozen on the front page of google search results alone). There's a half dozen stories about this for Trump. Here's one for Obama: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/29/middleman-helped-saudi-give-obama-inaugural/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/29/middleman-helped-saudi... We now know the inauguration fund is a big shadow slush fund for presidents. So is the presidential library, and the usual post-term speech circuit and "consulting". These people and power structures exist because of concentrated oil wealth, and we should move towards alternative energy and BEVs to bankrupt these corrupt regimes and the corruption they exert on our country.

quickthrowman 5y ago

> (Obama's version was surrendering Crimea to Putin so that Putin would give him an out for his Syrian "red line" blunder). What approach would you have taken to prevent Vladimir Putin from taking back Crimea? It’s a majority Russian area where they hold a long term naval base lease. The peninsula in question was gifted to Ukraine by the USSR in 1954. Also keep in mind the fact that Russia has nuclear weapons, and any direct military conflict with Russia has the potential to go nuclear. How do you proceed to prevent Russia from annexing Crimea?