FOLLOWING weeks of prevarication, President Trump has finally shared his thoughts on the gruesome-state sponsored murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia. Responding to a conclusion by the CIA that the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (CPS), had ordered the murder of the critic of his regime, Mr Trump nonchalantly responded that "maybe he did and maybe he didn't", a reaction more akin to that of a four-year-old boy than the President of the United States.
It is transparently clear that the President will not even contemplate a discussion on US relations with Saudi Arabia, citing the hundreds of billions of dollars at stake in terms of trade and the "evil Iranian regime" as major reasons why the Saudis must remain as crucial economic and security allies irrespective of their policies or nefarious activities ("Trump refuses to condemn Saudi prince", The Herald, November 21).
As is his style, Mr Trump also made it clear that any damage to US relations with the Saudis would benefit Russia and China, diversionary but fruitful scaremongering of the highest order.
By now it should come as no surprise that the President can be so dismissive in the face of obvious truths and tangible factual detail and yet he continues to leave us nonplussed with regards his casual relationship with veracity. Mr Trump, it appears, knows no moral compass in his personal or professional life and he is at least consistent in his flagrant lack of integrity in all matters, domestic and foreign.
His administration is now so divisive and partisan in affairs of the Middle East that the United States can no longer be regarded, even in pretence, as an honest broker and upholder of democratic values. The President nurtures close relations with two draconian powers, namely Saudi Arabia and Israel, while he demonises Iran, is baffled by Syria and has little interest in other countries bereft of oil or strategic importance.
Mr Khashoggi was a regular journalistic contributor to the Washington Post and enjoyed US residency rights but in response to his brutal murder, the President is reported to have said that "the world is a very dangerous place". We are more than two years into Mr Trump's presidency and the world is becoming more dangerous and less compassionate by the hour.
Saudi Arabia and its leader, Crown Prince Salman, have literally got away with murder.
As Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the USA once said: "Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilised nations."
Owen Kelly,
8 Dunvegan Drive, Stirling.
IF ever humanity needed proof of the immorality and inhumanity of President Donald Trump, we certainly have that now. His statement backing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia must surely be the most brazen of appeasement since 1938. His willingness to put wealth over human rights, mammon over principle is a sign that Mr Trump is both bereft of morals as well as decency.
When he said that his dealings were with Saudi Arabia and not the Crown Prince he forgot to mention that the Crown Prince is Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy where the will of the King is the will of the nation. Saudi Arabia is a state sponsor of terrorism. It is a state sponsor of genocide as is seen in the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The Saudi government acts as a colonial power as is seen in the attempt to destabilise the government of Qatar. And yet Mr Trump (and the UK by the way) continue to appease Saudi Arabia.
This begs the question: why do we continue to do business with these people? Any claims that the West might have to moral, political and ethical superiority have been rendered as hypocritical. The profit motive as an economic-political system has failed. And we are all the poorer for it,
Rev John Nugent,
Wick St Fergus Manse, Miller Avenue, Wick.
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