In other words, Saudi Arabia can do anything it wants, including murder, torturing political prisoners, waging a genocidal war on Yemen and sponsoring head-chopping terrorists, because it is a "steadfast partner" of Washington.
In absolving the Saudi rulers in the Khashoggi murder, Trump piled up the abject excuses, distractions and obfuscations. He accused Iran of being the problem of terrorism in the Middle East, not Saudi Arabia. He accused Iran of being responsible for millions of children starving in Yemen, not Saudi Arabia. He slandered Khashoggi as being an "enemy of the state." He said Saudi Arabia was too important for US weapons sales, jobs and oil interests to be considered for sanctions over the "terrible killing." Finally, Trump candidly blurted that "America First" national interests of profits and security were more important than any moral values.
In response, The New York Times sought to moralize over the president's indecency, in an article headlined: "In Pardoning Saudi Arabia, Trump Gives Guidance to Autocrats." It added: "The president laid out a foreign policy where alliances are transactional, jobs outweigh values and friends are excused for abhorrent acts."
Of course, Trump's whitewashing of Saudi despotism is abhorrent. But what is really upsetting the US media, pundits and other politicians in Washington is that Trump is laying bare the real nature of America's "strategic" relationship with Saudi Arabia.
And not just Saudi Arabia. For decades, Washington has willingly consorted with the most barbaric, fascist dictatorships to mass murder its way to maintaining hegemony around the world. Journalists, trade unionists, teachers, peasants, priests, democracy activists and countless other civilians have been murdered by US-backed despotic regimes in order to keep the "world safe" for American corporate capitalism.
Trump's brazen pardoning of the Saudi regime this week is merely a continuation of Washington's policy. The difference on this occasion is that the veil of American moralistic pretense and virtuous rhetoric has been torn asunder.
That's what is really vexing the US media, pundits and politicians. So in order to distract from the spectacle of sordid American calculation, there is a desperate attempt to blame Trump and explain away his indecency as an aberration of personal affinity with autocrats.
Even when the US ruling class is exposed in its corrupt dealings with murderous dictatorships, it finds some way of blaming others and smearing their bà ªte noire -- Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
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