Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to Donald Trump. Today’s op-ed at the Huffington Post is no different.
This weekend, President Trump will unveil a proposed mammoth arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The pro-Gulf foreign policy establishment in the United States and the Middle East will cheer it as an investment in a new security arrangement for our Sunni partners in the Middle East to combat extremism and fight against Iranian expansion. It was negotiated by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who has zero experience in foreign relations generally, or Saudi arms sales specifically. It appears the Trump administration is counting on the country with the worst human rights record in the region to enforce peace and security in the Middle East.
The arms sale is a terrible idea, and I want you to know why.
Our foreign policy woes have not happened in a vacuum. Many around the world hate us utterly, and in many cases our own military blundering is in large part responsible. Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, makes the case that this arms deal will do nothing but exacerbate that.
Obama withheld precision-guided munitions because the Saudis were using U.S.-provided munitions to repeatedly target civilian and humanitarian sites in their bombing campaign inside Yemen, despite regular protests from the United States. Thousands of civilians inside Yemen have been killed during the civil war, many by the Saudi-led coalition, and today, the country is on the brink of famine in part because the Saudis have intentionally destroyed transit hubs and key bridges, and blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid into Yemen. As we speak, millions of Yemenis are being radicalized against the country they blame for the civilian deaths: the United States. By selling the Saudis these precision-guided weapons more — not fewer — civilians will be killed because it is Saudi Arabia’s strategy to starve Yemenis to death to increase their own leverage at the negotiating table. They couldn’t do this without the weapons we are selling them.
It's worth the click over to HuffPo to read the whole piece, and he lays out several other points detailing why this deal is terrible for peace and American interests worldwide, but I'll include some of his closing ‘graph.
Listen, Saudi Arabia is an important friend and partner for the United States..
But they are still a deeply imperfect friend..
And in the powder keg that is the Middle East, this sale may simply light a fuse that sends the region, and us, deeper down the rabbit hole of perpetual military conflict.
Well said Senator. Here’s hoping your colleagues on the hill listen to you.