President Donald Trump’s regional “peace” summit to fight terrorism with Saudi Arabia insults Americans’ intelligence. A weapons deal brokered by Trump amounting to more than $300 billion over a 10-year period is not a tool of “peace” in the region. Sen. Rand Paul should be thanked for introducing a “resolution of disapproval” motion that will force the U.S. Senate to vote on the arms deal within the next 30 days. Americans should flood the Senate phone lines to support Paul’s efforts.
The Saudi connection to 9/11 cannot be erased. Fifteen of the hijackers were Saudis. Besides being the world’s leading funders of terrorist activity and extremism, Saudi Arabia is the most flagrant violator of human rights, beheading and killing protesters and treating women unequally. According to a published Institute for Peace and Prosperity article, “The extreme Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam embraced by the Saudis as a state religion is near indistinguishable from the ideology of ISIS … or any of those terror organizations.”
The Saudis — with the U.S. providing bombs and other military support in Yemen — have committed war crimes. The United Nations acknowledges as a result of Saudi air, land and sea blockade, there is a famine crisis in Yemen. And the Trump administration and its spokespersons demonize Iran and Syria?
Iran just conducted an open and fair national election with moderates taking power, compared to a Saudi dictatorship. Iran has expended sizeable resources and blood in fighting Salafi-Jihadist terrorism. The Syrian government has been fighting the rebels who created civil chaos in its country, including ISIS/al-Qaeda. Concerning the recent sarin attack in Syria, even Theodore Postol, MIT professor emeritus of science and technology, after examining the material presented by the Trump administration, questions the administration’s assumptions that Syria was responsible.
Trump needs to dismantle and replace his neoconservative advisers, who are leading him down the wrong path of war.
Deborah K. Smarth
Manalapan