By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published on October 22, 2018
On October 2, 2018, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured, murdered, and dismembered by a Saudi Arabian “hit squad” in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Initially, the Saudis attempted to cover-up this murder by denying it.
Since October 2nd, President Donald J. Trump has aided this cover-up by parroting every explanation provided by the Saudis for Khashoggi’s murder and finding each one of the ever-changing explanations to be "credible." Trump has coddled and kissed the Saudis throughout this ordeal.
Trump justifies his enduring passivity in this matter by saying he does not want Khashoggi’s murder to interfere with a multi-billion dollar arms trade deal that is supposedly in the works.
In recent days, the Kingdom finally acknowledged Khashoggi’s murder. The Kingdom also admitted that the killers are linked directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
As a loyal lapdog of the Saudis, Trump has embraced each and every false narrative advanced by the Saudis to explain Khashoggi's murder, even though Turkish and American intelligence agencies informed Trump early on that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered.
Trump has a knack for embracing every murderous despot who will meet with him and stroke his oversized ego. He has shown absolutely no disdain for the use of murder as an acceptable political tool.
We first saw Trump's acceptance of murder as a political tool in the aftermath of a neo-Nazi’s despicable murder of an innocent protestor in Charlottesville, Virginia. We saw it again with Khashoggi’s murder.
Nobody inside Trump’s inner circle has been able to convince Trump that murder is not an acceptable political tool.
Trump's political supporters, many of whom are Evangelical Christians, don’t seem to care, one way or the other. To them, “Thou shall not kill,” is just a cute Bible verse that children memorize in Sunday School. Otherwise, it is okay with them to murder innocent people as long as Trump’s close friends in the defense industry profit from arms deals with the murders.
We have never had an American president who would say and do anything, no matter how stupid, ignorant, and distasteful it sounded. We have one now.
I fully understand why President Trump’s former cabinet members called him an “idiot” and “moron.” They saw his juvenile behavior up-close and on a personal basis.
PHOTO: Murder victim Jamal Khashoggi (left) and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right).
