Earlier this week, the C.I.A. concluded that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on the direct orders of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
In response, President Trump issued this ultimatum to the Kingdom:
“We know this came from you. And so you’re not getting a free pass. For starters, you’re going to let every one of the women driving activists that you’ve arrested out of jail; you’re going to announce an immediate, unilateral cease-fire in Yemen ” let the Iranians and Houthis have it and we’ll side with you if they attack from there. You’re going to end this stupid blockade of Qatar, and I expect you to keep taking steps to moderate Saudi Islam and ensure that Salafi-jihadist ideas are not exported to any mosque or madrasa from your country ever again.”
Finally! (and what a relief).
The President at long last gets it — and is responding with an appropriate, even statesman-like list of demands Saudi Arabia must accept to ensure that America remains its ally.
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Unfortunately, President Trump did nothing of the kind.
The paragraph above was written by New York Times columnist (and St. Louis Park native) Tom Friedman. See, “Trump’s Black Friday Sale: Oil, Guns and Morals.”
To America’s shame, the President apparently tweeted (my paraphrase), “Maybe the crown prince knew, maybe he didn’t . . . but we’ll never know.”
Yes, we do.
Just like we know that the 2016 election wasn’t hacked “by a guy sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds.”
Tom Friedman for Secretary of State, anyone?
I hear there’s an opening . . . (or if there isn’t, given this Administration’s track record, there will be shortly).
