Glenn Greenwald’s thread on the relationship between U.S. politicians and the Saudis for DECADES really speaks for itself, so to avoid screwing up a good thing this editor will write very little about it. It started with Greenwald responding to Jake Tapper …
The Saudis are right about this. For decades, US Presidents have loved Saudi tyrants precisely because of their repressive brutality & business elites because of their oil $. None of that will change. Foreign policy elites are already justifying MbS. Read: https://t.co/jRFYaWJH8J https://t.co/QFCxFP7alL
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 21, 2018
What he said.
Not only did Obama lavish the Saudis with weapons and intel used to destroy Yemen, he *cut short his state visit to India, the world's largest democracy* to fly to Riyadh to pay homage to the Saudi King. Here's what he said when challenged about it: https://t.co/DGS0TYVHne pic.twitter.com/IbwbhrvQQ9
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 21, 2018
Buuuuuuut Trump!
So while – yes – Trump & Kushner love the Saudis (in Kushner's case, seemingly for all sorts of sinister and personal financial reasons, among others), bipartisan US foreign policy for decades has been to support Saudi despots not despite their brutality but because of it.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 21, 2018
He is not excusing or justifying Trump’s behavior (and he’s certainly not giving Kushner a pass, wow) but what he’s doing here is pointing out that this is NOTHING NEW, that this is not something Trump started or created.
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So if you’re only just now clutching your pearls that means you haven’t been paying attention.
So please spare everyone the moralizing bullshit about how Trump has pioneered a new US policy of cozying up to dictators without concerns about their human rights abuses. Washington's bipartisan foreign policy has been exactly this for decades: Trump is just more blunt about it.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 21, 2018
See? He said it much better.
Last March, @mtaibbi documented how pathetically laughable it is pretend that Trump's eagerness to cozy up to & support repressive, brutal dictators is a departure from US foreign policy & "American values" rather than a perfect embodiment of them https://t.co/tT9sZY9cpM
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 21, 2018
Or in other words, the same old same old. Greenwald was especially brilliant in his thread by sharing a Rolling Stone article proving his point, they are definitely NOT right-leaning in any way.
Bravo, right?!
This is a great photo montage by the NYT of AP photos in @maureendowd's quite good column on the long-standing, self-rewarding bipartisan love US political & business elites have always shown for Saudi brutality. Don't let ex-Obama officials moralize https://t.co/Si7ynMA9LU pic.twitter.com/9kfjYP0Jxj
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 21, 2018
And we shouldn’t let the media moralize about it either.
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