Jamal Khashoggi: “Everyone is in a state of confusion and helplessness, there is no one you can go to. God help us.”

There is no way to atone for this murder.  It was a state crime, authorized at the highest level (MBS, the prince regent), and it was said to be unusually grisly.  There doesn’t seem to be a body, which testifies to the murder’s brutal thoroughness.  As a country, as a nation, all patriotic Americans who love liberty and the rule of law should recoil in disgust.  What does our leader do?  He emphasizes those gigantic trade deals and lies again about their size.  Our shame is complete.

If the publicity surrounding the death of Jamal Khashoggi should force a reassessment and a truce in the war in Yemen, then maybe some good will come out of this.  But in order to do that, the Senate has to put pressure on the president and the president has to make a deal with the Saudis to get to the truce table in Yemen for our continued good will– and make it stick with restriction of our arms supplies and logistics.  Nobody says we have to abandon them, but we do need to put pressure on them to stop the war and give relief to the people of Yemen.  Can our president do that?

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)