[politics] Trump so eager to get arms to Saudi's he vetoes congress attempt to stop him.

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Trump vetoes Congress's attempt to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia

President Trump on Wednesday vetoed three resolutions that Congress passed to stop several arms sales benefiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which the president pushed through without congressional approval.
Earlier this month, bipartisan majorities ? but not a veto-proof majority ? in the House and Senate voted to block the arms deals, worth more than $8 billion.
The sales would replenish part of the Saudi arsenal that lawmakers say has been used against civilians in Yemen's civil war. Many lawmakers also object to the idea of rewarding Saudi leaders after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The president announced in May that he would use emergency authority to push through the weapons sales that include missiles, munitions and surveillance aircraft.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-vetoes-congresss-attempt-to-block-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia/2019/07/24/7b047c32-ae65-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.60389fff6528

I heard relentlessly that Clinton's Saudi deals were reason enough to vote for Trump over Clinton, however, you hear silence on Trump bending over backwards to give Saudis more than they would have ever had access to. Declaring Emergencies, vetoing congress.. He will stop at nothing to make sure he secures his business deals in Saudi Arabia by arming them to the teeth and giving them tech that both democrats and republicans have agreed they did not need to have.

They likely do not have enough votes to override his veto, so again this is another case of Trump being able to whatever he wants regardless of what is for the good of the people. You can be damn sure that Clinton would not have vetoed congress in order to make these deals regardless of what deals the US has made in the past. There are no lines that will not be crossed under Trump however.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

So fucked. Literally helping genocide in Yemen from what I heard about what the Saudis are doing there. Australia's sending them weapons too it sucks and makes me feel ashamed.

The government of Saudi Arabia is like everything wrong about Islam, Sharia law and executions and opression. Saudi Arabia is everything that racists try to claim the average muslim family will try somehow to install if they immigrate to the west but they wont say a word when Trump supports Saudi Arabia, even when they voted for him to be tough on muslims. It makes no sense at all and just seems bizzare now if any anti-muslim bigot supports Trump still.

But electing most Dems in America won't fix this. Both sides of American politics are in the pocket of the American weapons industry, they will do anything that favours them. Thats why you're military budget is bloated beyond belief and even when your army says no more tanks please, they still get forced to take more tanks by the politicians.

The Republicans are the more overt military party, but you'll only ever see slightly less funding yet still way too much pushed by the Dems. The republicans whip up the masses with jingoistic support our soldiers blah blah if you try to critiscise military funding for jets n shit but the Democrats just sneakily get away with it by not talking about it at all and people think they are the anti-war party.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

The government of Saudi Arabia is like everything wrong about Islam, Sharia law and executions and opression. Saudi Arabia is everything that racists try to claim the average muslim family will try somehow to install if they immigrate to the west but they wont say a word when Trump supports Saudi Arabia, even when they voted for him to be tough on muslims. It makes no sense at all and just seems bizzare now if any anti-muslim bigot supports Trump still.

Why not? If I were a massive cynic (and I am) I'd think the idea to supply brown people the means to slaughter other brown people while making good money of it would have great appeal.

 

[Agema]

The Republicans are the more overt military party, but you'll only ever see slightly less funding yet still way too much pushed by the Dems. The republicans whip up the masses with jingoistic support our soldiers blah blah if you try to critiscise military funding for jets n shit but the Democrats just sneakily get away with it by not talking about it at all and people think they are the anti-war party.

True in a way: the US defence budget is driven more by global circumstances than party. In reality, quite a lot of what the government does is driven more by circumstance than planned ideology.

However, bear in mind that Democratic funding of the military also to some extent is dependent on the wider political state of affairs, which the Republicans influence: the Democrats cannot appear to seem too weak on defence in case it costs them votes. Republican aggressiveness in promoting defence is thus likely to also shift the Democrats to some extent.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I heard relentlessly that Clinton's Saudi deals were reason enough to vote for Trump over Clinton, however, you hear silence on Trump bending over backwards to give Saudis more than they would have ever had access to.

To which I'm sure their answer will be "Something something but her emails! something something"

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

So, can we now officially call Trump an arm supplier to terrorist in this move?

Or do we get further mental gymnastics that he's still tough in Terrorists even keeping this in mind?

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

I'm disappointed but not surprised. I wish our government did not feel the need to collaborate with the despotic Saudi regime and assist them in their genocidal wars.

 

[Gergar12_v1legacy]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does. Seriously the same people who are for same-sex marriage defending people who hang LGBTQ.

That said if the next POTUS does not kick SA out of the F-35 program, they are a moron.

 

[Agema]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does.

It doesn't need them, because the US government is already right in there defending Saudi Arabia, as it has done for decades.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Remember kids; Islamic fundamentalists are only bad when they AREN'T in cahoots with American capitalism.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Remember kids; Islamic fundamentalists are only bad when they AREN'T in cahoots with American capitalism.

And American Imperialism/Power Projection. Can't forget about that, right?

 

[Seanchaidh]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does. Seriously the same people who are for same-sex marriage defending people who hang LGBTQ.

It's almost like that's pretty much irrelevant to whether the United States should kill a bunch of people.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does. Seriously the same people who are for same-sex marriage defending people who hang LGBTQ.

It's almost like that's pretty much irrelevant to whether the United States should kill a bunch of people.

Yeah, I dunno how to say it but like, we can be anti-islam without being anti-muslims if that makes sense.

 

[Saelune]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does. Seriously the same people who are for same-sex marriage defending people who hang LGBTQ.

It's almost like that's pretty much irrelevant to whether the United States should kill a bunch of people.

Yeah, I dunno how to say it but like, we can be anti-islam without being anti-muslims if that makes sense.

I just find it hypocritical for a religion that hates gays and women to tell me it is wrong for a different religion to hate gays and women.

If I am not allowed to condemn all of Christianity for bigotry, then I refuse to treat Islam differently. But then, I value equality.

 

[Trunkage]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does. Seriously the same people who are for same-sex marriage defending people who hang LGBTQ.

That said if the next POTUS does not kick SA out of the F-35 program, they are a moron.

It's like Israel, you're criticising the government, not the people.

I understnad why Iran is shooting down drone. I still don't condone their stance on LBGT issues. If that makes me a idiot defending Iran, so be it.

Also, I don't understand Iran attacking shipping again, that failed 30 years ago pretty emphatically. I guess it's the only way to retaliate to sanction but all they're going to do is receive the same treatment

 

[Agema]

Also, I don't understand Iran attacking shipping again, that failed 30 years ago pretty emphatically. I guess it's the only way to retaliate to sanction but all they're going to do is receive the same treatment

The UK intercepted an Iranian ship in Gibraltar that it suspected was delivering to Syria in defiance of sanctions. Therefore Iran hijacked a British-connected ship in return - so basic tit for tat. Iran is proposing an exchange.

It's also not necessarily about global politics: it might just be about Iran making a statement to its own people that it can defend them and express power in the local area. The other thing to bear in mind about Iran is that it really has two powers - there's the official quasi-democratic government, and then there are the clerics and Revolutionary Guard. My perception is that the Revolutionary Guard does stuff against the will of the government in order to remind it who's boss.

At worst, the Revolutionary Guard is a grey eminence; it's not only a military force plus militia it can separately call up, but exerts considerable control over policing, borders, and even has a powerful economic presence, with stakes in a substantial number of major Iranian businesses. Its members have also increasingly appointed into government roles. Some have suggested the Revolutionary Guard may even have amassed so much power and independence to be beyond the ability of the clerical council and Ayatollah to control.

 

[Pseudonym]

At least Saudi Arabia doesn't have a legion of Reddit idiots defending them as Iran does. Seriously the same people who are for same-sex marriage defending people who hang LGBTQ.

That said if the next POTUS does not kick SA out of the F-35 program, they are a moron.

In arguments, you should defend people when they are right, not when they are good people. Or to be more precise, it's usually not about defending Iran full stop, but about defending the idea of not attacking them for essentially no reason. Or defending them from blame for attacking ships with only the shoddiest of evidence that they actually did that.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

True in a way: the US defence budget is driven more by global circumstances than party.

If by "global circumstance" you mean "the vested financial interest of the financial, energy, and defense sectors", you'd be closer to the truth. The US doesn't keep stirring up shit in lesser-developed countries around the world of strategic economic importance, thereby guaranteeing profitability in nation-building and arms trading, just because we goddamn feel like it.

It's rather ironic Iran came up in this very thread, but not one mention of why Iran has the (hostile) government it currently does.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

True in a way: the US defence budget is driven more by global circumstances than party.

If by "global circumstance" you mean "the vested financial interest of the financial, energy, and defense sectors", you'd be closer to the truth. The US doesn't keep stirring up shit in lesser-developed countries around the world of strategic economic importance, thereby guaranteeing profitability in nation-building and arms trading, just because we goddamn feel like it.

It's rather ironic Iran came up in this very thread, but not one mention of why Iran has the (hostile) government it currently does.

I don't think there is anyone here that is under the disillusion that the US didn't cause the increase in hostilities in the first place with Iran. Many of us here have had lengthy discussion on that topic in the past in R&P so pretty much know each other's default positions on that. Outside of the Sunni/Shia pissing contest, just about everything they are pissed about is due to US involvement.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

It's rather ironic Iran came up in this very thread, but not one mention of why Iran has the (hostile) government it currently does.

Ohhh, oooh! I know the answer! Is it due to decades of us (and the British) dicking around with their political system and backing a despotic monarch? And then after a revolution topples him, we back a naked war of aggression started by Iraq in order to take over their territory by supplying Iraq with all sorts of weapons? And then we spend time trying to isolate them from the international community and make thinly veiled (or not veiled) threats about a regime change by force?

Of all the countries that "hate" us (or at least our government) I think Iran has a pretty good case for being justified.