The Saudi Standard
War! Again! Against an evil enemy, of course. While we chart the offenses of our putative enemies, the crimes of our solid allies are ignored.
Before we find ourselves lost in yet another desert storm, let’s objectively state how bad a country has to be before we attack them with military force, including bombing.
I nominate the Saudis. As in, the United States does not go to war with any nation unless they act worse than the Saudis. Let's recap the crimes of Saudi Arabia:
encouraging and funding radical Islamic terrorists
encouraging and funding radical Islamic terrorists
public beheadings for minor crimes and non-crimes imprisoning women, all women, with travel, money and clothing restrictions
use of chemical weapons. See video below:
The Saudi Standard is that a country would have to be at least as bad as the Saudis for the United States to declare war, provide military support, or use drones. There. Finally we have an objective, independent standard for decisions of military aggression.
Sins of the Saudis
The real weight in the Saudi Standard is the “aiding the 9/11 attack” part of the test. Besides Japan bombing Pearl Harbour, no country has behaved worse towards the United States. Now, the Saudi Arabian monarchy did not attack the United States as a country. But Saudi money and radical interpretation of Islam supports terror groups all over the world. Those groups carry out terror attacks against us and our allies. And because of the oil, we look the other way.
The latest news is a bill passed in Congress allowing families of people killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue to Saudi government. Their claim is based on the participation of Saudi officials in preparing for the World Trade Center attack in 2001. See video below:
The Saudis are allies you could say only wish on your enemy. If we can fight wars to protect Saudi Arabia from Iraqi invasions, then the nations we declare war on should at least be worse than them. All that is aside from their monarchy system of government, which our soldiers died to protect.
It is our civic duty to ask for an accounting of our military decisions, and the real reason we are attacking, or supporting the attack, of other countries. It certainly can't be human rights violations, as almost no one is as bad as Saudi Arabia.
