The country seems to be coming a bit unglued as President Trump tells us all that the business relationship with Saudi Arabia is more important than the life of Jamal Khashoggi. There is a little more to it than that…we need a partner in that region alongside Israel, world oil prices….that sort of stuff, but the point has been made.
In no way do I, or will I ever, condone the killing of a journalist (or anyone) simply for speaking out against his (or any other) government. Never. This isn’t about approval. This is about the bigger question. Why is it this person and this incident that have the country foaming at our collective mouths? What made this the number one topic of coverage in our news cycles for so long?
I ask because technically Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi citizen and his death took place on Saudi soil (albeit in the guise of an embassy). We don’t usually get this many people (or media members) interested when a government kills one of its own citizens. Yes, he was a temporary resident of the U.S. and worked for a U.S. media company…so that may have something to do with it.
Or, is it also that the current President has pulled back the curtains and exposed us all to the foul inner workings of our foreign policy? Politicians are scrambling like roaches in the light to let their constituents know that they will be doing something to investigate/punish Saudi Arabia for fear they are tied to this in any way.
While I was finishing this post, in an effort to try to return the mask, the Senate is voting to strongly condemn Saudi Arabia. Oh No! Not strongly condemn! This simply allows them to face their voter base and say, “We did everything we could and boy are we furious!” and “Ooooh, We wish we could do more, but we can’t and let’s look over here at this shiny thing now.”
I would wager that the average national news watching citizen knows the name Khashoggi by now. But how many of them know the names Peng Ming or Lei Yang? What about Pyotr Verzilov or Reza Mazlouman? These are only some of the names of those killed who spoke out against their governments.
There is even a list of countries ranked by most journalist deaths in (or contracted by) a country. A country has to have at least 5 to even make the list. Brazil, The Philippines, and Mexico are on that list. I don’t see any calls for us to stop doing business with those countries.
India is on the list. Will we be sanctioning India anytime soon? Why not? Any chance it is because none of these journalist’s deaths made the news and halting business with India would be bad for our economy? Of course not…
The foul treatment of those that speak out against their governments goes well beyond murder. What about imprisonment and torture for merely disagreeing with one’s government? China rules in that department. The number of people imprisoned, tortured, and/or executed for crimes such as “causing trouble” or “gathering crowds” since 1981 is up to 8,765.
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama (the second highest rank in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism) was arrested three days after being named Panchen. He was six…he and his family haven’t been seen in public since (23 years). This is what China does. They silence people…with death if need be.
This isn’t something hidden from us, nor is it new. Yet even with all of this knowledge of the Chinese government torturing teachers, businessmen, and journalists for having thoughts contrary to the state, our country has done nothing to sanction them.
It gets worse…much worse. There are currently as many as one million ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang being kept in some sort of detention. The government is building detention camps and moving people in by the thousands. When the UN brought it up, the Chinese asked to be left alone to run their country as they see fit.
Where are the protests calling for a dissolution of all trade with China? They don’t exist because we want cheap stuff for Christmas. We had a series of concerts for Amnesty International…they brought the biggest names in music and told the stories of those imprisoned by their governments for high crimes. Of course, by high crimes I mean attempting to “discredit the regime by writing romantic poetry.” Did we do anything to our relationship with that country? No…no we didn’t.
Even with the potential imprisonment of a million people, the current administration is still only considering sanctions. Obama never sanctioned China…though he threatened to do so if they didn’t stop hacking us. Bush applied sanctions for the Tiananmen massacre, but those were very short lived.
Country after country imprisons or executes those that would speak out against them. All our government has ever done is sanction those who offer us nothing of value in terms of trade. Look at Iran. We require nothing of them and so we freely apply hard sanctions to them and any country that does business with them. Other countries, we bluster about and threaten or apply minor sanctions, but those are hardly a deterrent and quickly removed once the heat blows over.
What President Trump has done with his statement confirming our continued partnership with Saudi Arabia is expose us all to the complicated, and often times stomach turning, inner workings of our dealings with foreign governments. We may not like it, but it certainly isn’t anything new. Obama dealt with Ethiopian PM Zenawi, Bush with Ilham of Azerbaijan, Clinton and Chagoury in Nigeria, Reagan with PW Botha, on and on and on…
We continue to interact with countries around the globe that have horrendous human rights records. Countries that behead people for blasphemy (I’m looking at you, Pakistan). Regimes that punish any who dare to question their leaders. Those that force citizens to flee for their own safety.
After his visit in 2015, Obama stood up and declared Ethiopia a freely elected democracy, because it gave him cover to continue the relationship. Many of us have never heard of this story and while it received some news coverage, the cycle was only about two days long. Much of the coverage was simply some quotes from his speech and a word or two about how he might help this young government. Only a few called him out for his bullcorn…and even then they simply used such biting headlines as ” Obama criticized for saying Ethiopia is democratic.” Oh…such language!
This isn’t meant to be an anti-Obama sentiment. This is merely the most recent example of something that our presidents have always done.
What was the problem? Ethiopia had recently held elections. The ruling party won all 547 seats in their parliament. That comes out to let’s see…carry the 3…a 100% win rate against 79 other parties. Even in North Korea, the ruling party only wins about 90% of the seats. Yet Obama stood up and called them a democratically elected government.
Why? Mainly because Ethiopia was a key U.S. partner against Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda strongholds in Somalia. Without Ethiopia, that part of the world would be instantly more susceptible to the expansion of terror organizations. So, he stood up and told the world that Ethiopia was America’s ally to give other challengers, who might attempt an overthrow, reason to back off and also to maintain their partnership in the war against the “Al”s.
Is this wrong? That opinion is yours to form. Is the fake democracy and American support ($580 million) for a brutal regime that walked into villages and set homes on fire without warning acceptable if it helps to lessen the strength of terror groups in the region?
I can’t answer that for you. You need to take in the information and decide how you feel about that without a head in the old television box telling you what is good or bad.
Would you let one life be lost if you believed that it meant thousands more were saved down the road? Could we be in the very same situation here? If we lose Saudi Arabia in that region of the world, what happens to our hope for stability? What happens to the world economies?
So…you don’t enjoy seeing the man working the levers and buttons behind the scenes, do you? You prefer the simpler time when politicians put on a front and kept the dirty secrets to themselves. Our government used to be the leper’s mask. We all knew what was behind the mask, but we could at least pretend that we didn’t. Trump dropped the mask. We can’t pretend that we don’t know anymore.
I guess that is part of what has us so angry. A little of our pretend innocence was taken away. Just as when we were kids who were old enough to know that the (spoiler ahead) tooth fairy wasn’t real, we still played along because we weren’t quite ready to grow up yet. Now, we were just told in no uncertain terms that there is no tooth fairy.
Jamal Khashoggi shouldn’t have died for having an opinion or for pointing out the bad behaviors of his government. No one should. We need a true, honest, and unbiased press to keep governments accountable without journalists fearing for their lives.
Maybe his death will lead to something good. It could be the moment that gets people demanding action be taken against countries with deplorable human rights or that kill journalists.
It will be up to us, though. Are we willing to pay more for goods simply to hold China accountable? Will we stop doing business with companies who outsource to India or the Philippines? Are you ready to pay the price across the board if oil suddenly skyrockets? Can we stomach the rebuilding of the terror groups?
While it seems simple to say that we should stop all business with the Saudis or any of those other countries…we then need to understand the ramifications, both economical and territorial, that come along with that decision. Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton and on down the line have had to continue relationships with truly evil people for the good of the country…and perhaps the world. I can’t say I envy any of them the number of horrific, no-win decisions they have had to make in their terms.
Above the Nonsense 