How M.B.S. Won Back Washington

7 comments

1. After the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, Mohammed bin Salman became a pariah. He’s been slowly rehabilitated, and is now being celebrated in the Oval Office. Isaac Chotiner talks to an expert on the Middle East about how the Saudi leader won back Washington.

2. Money. The answer is money

3. >How M.B.S. Won Back ~~Washington~~

   How M.B.S. Won Back Trump.

   Frankly, MBS never lost Trump to begin with so there was nothing to “win back” but money/oil to Trump and his children works.

4. Saudis have quietly always been America’s best ally; without them the cold war might have ended differently.

   Today too, the only nation capable of making sure oil prices remain relatively low is KSA, and if market oil price is low it means Putin has less income and less money to spend on invading Ukraine.

   In Lebanon, Syria and to a degree Gaza – Saudis along with other Gulf nations are quietly using their money behind the scenes to try and support the removal of armed groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that hold much of the region hostage to their whims or those of their IRGC overlords.

   More importantly, Saudis have vested interest in stability – unlike many others in the region, like Iran, Qatar and even Turkey, who seek to destabilize. They are in this regard a natural ally to America.

   People like to virtue signal off the American-Saudi relationship and Khashoggi always gets brought up – as if other nations secret services don’t sometime murder in cold blood a person they consider undesirable. The only thing different and “wrong” the Saudis did was let the Turkish secret service obtain evidence of their crime, the rest is virtue signaling.

   Much more relevant in geopolitical lens is what are Saudis abilities and goals – and in these areas they score high on the list of nations who want to see the middle east stabilized and flourishing and not mired in war and violence. Instability is bad for the business of investment, and Riyadh is the world’s biggest investment firm, they are a force of stability which imho far outweighs anything else – not just in terms of geopolitics and American interests, even from a purely moral perspective.

5. MBS was also known to be close with Epstein. Pretty wild.

6. There is one eternal thing, money.

7. Trump basically behaves like a sultan. As much as I loathe the man, I will admit his bravado and particular personality work very well with Middle Eastern monarchs. They see themselves in him.

Comments are closed.