Posted on 12/10/2021 9:28:13 PM PST by RandFan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday rejected a bid from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to stop President Joe Biden’s administration from selling more than $650 million worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, allowing the deal to proceed despite the gulf nation’s dismal record on human rights.
A procedural motion by Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, was rejected on a 30-67 vote, in just the latest skirmish in Congress over U.S. sales of weapons to the country.
Saudi Arabia is one of the U.S.’s most steadfast allies in an unstable region of the globe. But the country’s leading role in a civil war in nearby Yemen, which has blocked the flow of basic necessities like fuel, food and medicine, as well as the role Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played in the assassination of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi has tested the strength of that bond.
“We could stop this war if we really had the will to do it,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “All of America should be appalled at the humanitarian disaster caused by the Saudi blockade of Yemen.”
This isn’t the first time a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has tried to block the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. Congress repeatedly tried to stop former Donald Trump from selling billions worth of arms to the country — forcing the then-president to issue a handful of vetoes.
Biden himself pledged on the campaign trail in November 2019 to make the Saudis “pariahs” while vowing that he was “not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them.”
But since his election in 2020, Biden has take a different tack.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Thank you Rand Paul.
Biden breaks another promise. Wonder what the liberals think of this.
Oh and I bet you the hypocrite Senate Democrats who tried to stop the arm sales under Trump are now supporting them under Biden.
Funny isn't it!
I don’t have a problem with Saudi Arabia getting weapons from us.
Those 9/11 Saudis know how to effectively spread around their money.
I like how Rand supports Biden, and the AP play it up.
They also stretch credibility with quotes like this;
“…U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi…”
He was a Saudi. He may have spent time in the US, but this is a stupid attempt to draw gullible people into thinking Saudi Arabia did something bad to a US citizen.
Rand is solid on this and much else.
“Saudi Arabia is one of the U.S.’s most steadfast allies in an unstable region of the globe”
Except of course for that time they funded the deadliest attack on the USA since WWII.
I think you’rw out to lunch personally.
They’re blockading a poor country like Yemen. Rand says the U.S. is now an accessory to the Saudi savagery.
We are also hurting Iran.
Both Iran and Yemen are attacking other countries. I like non-violent punishments for bad behavior, don’t you?
Are you mad we do the same to Iran? Why not?
Yemen is being blockaded and arming the Saudi’s sends the wrong message.
Those arms are aiding the blockade. Rand says international charities dare not fly over there to ship in food and medicine because of these missiles and the threat to shoot them down
Watch Rand’s speech
If we don’t sell the arms to the Saudis, the Brits, French, Russians or Chinese will.
Not necessarily and not as good as American weapons.
Besides, Rand says you can just stop selling spare parts, just spare parts and that will likely force their hand
Yemen harbors Iranian surrogates. There is also a strong communist influence in Yemen. Remember the days of North Yemen? I have been to Sanaa about a dozen times. There is a reason why we shut down our Embassy there.
Doesn’t mean they should be blockaded and people should suffer
Again, no charities will fly in food/medicine because of these weapons the Saudi’s are buying from the US and the implicit threat to use them
This is the problem.
*Cough*
Lockheed Lobbyists
*Cough*
There are a lot of apologists for the Military industrial complex that Ike warned about in the 1950’s.
So, are you against our similar blockade against Iran?
There is no blockade of Iran. There are sanctions but I dont see a blockade as such?
I worked at our Embassy in Riyadh for five years. You are clueless if you don’t understand the competitiveness of arms sales in the Middle East.
We have a long history of arms sales to the Kingdom. We have a large US military presence in the Kingdom responsible for selling arms and equipping the Saudis along with training them on how to use them. Arms sales means US jobs and lower unit costs for the US military. The Saudis were one of the few countries we sold the AWACS to.
The French and Brits are all over the region selling arms. And the Russians are getting back into the ME selling weapons to Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.
I have no problem with the Saudis fighting the Iranian surrogates in Yemen.
The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack by the terrorist group al Qaeda against USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, on 12 October 2000, while she was being refueled in Yemen’s Aden harbor.
Yemen is still a terrorist haven.
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