'We used to sell weapons to Saudia Arabia because we needed to secure their oil. Now we supposedly need to defend them because they buy our weapons.' jonathanchait writes on Trump's peculiar logic
Photo: Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Kingdom Council via Getty Images Two days ago, President Trump declared the United States was “locked and loaded” for a retaliatory strike on Iran for its attack on a Saudi oil facility. The United States was “waiting to hear from the kingdom” for guidance on “what terms we would proceed.” It is rather odd that the legendarily isolationist president would put American military power at the disposal of a foreign power.
But now Trump has come around to a different line of thinking. The Saudis don’t owe America for defending them. Americans owes the Saudis for the privilege of selling them advanced weaponry. “They’ve been a great ally,” gushed the president, The Saudis have been purchasing American weapons — with cash — for decades. That’s the nature of the relationship. It’s not clear why Trump has decided to stop seeing U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia as a favor to the Saudis and start seeing them as a favor to the U.S.
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