Comment by pradn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pradn | Hacker News Reader

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I don't understand how the crisis in Yemen, greatly exacerbated by MBS and supported by the US government, a crisis in which 200k+ Yemenis have been killed (including 80k+ children dead who starved to death), 3 million+ displaced, with the deadliest cholera outbreak in modern history - isn't on the front page news every day. Every little tidbit of court minutae at the venal Trump White House was covered (which press secretary was leaving, who was getting pardons), but not this enormous crisis that the US has direct control over.

It was disgusting how easily MBS was fawned over (see this absurd feature on MBS by Thomas Friedman [1]), how the Western media only cared about one of their own (Khashoggi was a WaPo journalist), and how quickly companies are coming back to back MBS's fantastical investment schemes like the Jetsons city-from-scratch NEOM, after stepping back for just a year.

The US doesn't even import all that much oil from Saudi Arabia! It's only use is as a lever to press other countries that rely on Saudi oil to come under the US fold.

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/opinion/saudi-prince-mbs-...

> The US doesn't even import all that much oil from Saudi Arabia! It's only use is as a lever to press other countries that rely on Saudi oil to come under the US fold.

True, but they are the U.S.'s #1 purchaser of military weapons.

> The U.S. sold a total of $55.6 billion of weapons worldwide in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 — up 33 percent from the previous fiscal year, and a near record. In 2017, the U.S. cleared some $18 billion in new Saudi arms deals.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-arabia-is-the-top-buyer-o...

That is a good point.

That last sentence of yours is key. The US now is the top oil producer, but it's still useful to have KSA there to do our bidding- basically we can crush Russia's and Iran's oil industry instantly, any time we feel like it. And our newer gas discoveries in the US will also let us control that market.

Now, I think we shouldn't be supporting MBS, but I understand the logic behind it. I am sympathetic to the idea that if the House of Saud goes down, a bunch of our other friends in the region are going to be in real trouble- ie all the little emirates, Jordan, Israel, Egypt.

That piece of reporting by Friedman is simply grotesque.. How a journalist for a major paper like the Times could not only let himself be so visibly bamboozled by a murderous, corrupt autocrat like this particular prince but openly describe how he's being greased up for good PR and then call it straight reporting is laughable. Looks like some NY Times reporters keep the old Walter Duranty tradition safely alive. despicable.

He's an opinion columnist, which means you can say pretty much anything, without regard to journalistic standards. Opinion columnists only lose their jobs to bad scandals - you can advocate for awful wars or policies that kill millions no problemo.

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