What's Biden Thinking? Why Doesn't He Take MBS Out Back?

You have to wonder what Joe Biden's thinking. On paper, it looks pretty obvious.

As in: Why doesn't he take Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to the woodshed for ordering the murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi? Why is he just sanctioning the perpetrators of this vicious, disgusting crime?

Khashoggi, a native of Saudi Arabia and officially still a citizen, who reported for The Washington Post, wrote some very critical things about the lack of human rights in his native country. MBS, as he is called, is the ruling 'boss' of his land since the real king, Salman, is 85 and is not sure where he is anymore. (Yes, I know: Biden is 78 and would be 86 if he should win two terms. And Ronald Reagan's mind was slipping away from him for at least the last year and a half, or so, of his second term. Scary. But I digress.)

So MBS is free to treat criticizers as he wishes and as he can get away with. When Khashoggi was at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, getting legal permission to get married, MBS's men planned a fatal ambush for him. They strangled him, then cut his body into several pieces with a chainsaw. They have not been found.

We know this. There's a report released this past week that says so (Though media revealed much of it already). Unfortunately, this despicable crime and devastation of free press was committed in October, 2018, during the term of our last president. He let MBS off the hook. I think part of him liked what happened to serve as a warning to the "enemies of the state," which is what he calls press that reports facts he doesn't want people to know.

It's impossible to know whether our previous, awful president would actually do this to certain journalists. But that's the point: He has no moral or ethical standards whatsoever. His inaction is its own statement. He's never commented upon the obvious depravity, either.

Biden's aware of all this. And he has acted. But he's done it with indirect subtleness, not with an iron fist. Why not? I can think of a few reasons:

• Iran. Saudi Arabia remains our best ally (though a rogue one) against an ever-menacing Iran, which is gaining in power and the manacles upon which have been released by our previous president, who stupidly cancelled the nuclear development agreement we had with it. He did so so he could justify attacking Iran in the future, which would please
• Israel. Though that country has also put on quite an aggressive face lately, Biden must utilize Saudi Arabia as a land base from which to potentially launch a counterstrike should Iran ever attack Israel. Please remember: We will never abandon Israel. Never. (I said this from my first year of teaching in 1973. I've never been more sure of anything.)
• Oil. We still need it, although the more electric cars we manage to sell our own people, the less that will be true, our own expanding oil independence notwithstanding (and will be limited because of the cutting off of the pipeline through Canada and what will soon--I predict--be curtailing of the drilling in Alaska). Are you watching the pump prices go up lately? That's partly because the OPEC countries, of which Saudi Arabia is its leading member, has cut back on supply. They aren't dumb.
• Iraq. Granted, we don't have a lot of people there anymore, but we still get them killed every so often. Should Saudi Arabia diminish itself as a bulwark against a hostile Iran, the latter would find it far easier to dominate the region. Iran and Iraq fought a ferocious war in the 1980s, not that long ago, in which millions on both sides were killed. Iraq's not strong enough to go through that again, and the United States is directly responsible for that. The effects of that mistaken policy and invasion sadly endure.
• People forget that tomorrow's another day. Embarrassing an ally is tricky business, especially two and a half years down the river. We had to bite down hard in World War II when we needed the Soviet Union, which never hesitated to imprison, exile, and execute millions of its own citizens for resisting its collectivization policy in the 1930s, to take on Hitler's Germany from the east while we planned and eventually implemented squeezing the Nazis from the west and south. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Nobody likes that, either. But it remains true.

Those who say that we should apply morality to our foreign policy aren't necessarily wrong. But they do look at the world through lens that need to be clarified. Acting nobly should be its own reward, but also would have its own consequences. Please remember that, in the end, every nation acts in its own self-interest and its own self-preservation first. And Joe Biden doesn't want to risk destruction and death of his own people if he doesn't have to.

Remember that the last president to commit us to a human rights measuring stick upon our foreign policy got burned badly, through circumstances he originally wasn't connected to. But you inherit results when you take over from someone else, and that baggage matters to those affected. Jimmy Carter got shackled by Iran when it took hostages in 1978; it was retribution for our CIA putting the Shah, who had just been overthrown, back onto the throne in 1953. It cost Carter a second term, and brought on Reagan, the conjured cult around whom, in my view, remains and ruined this country.

Note that the previous president took out an important Iranian military figure, Qasem Soleimani, early last year. The Iranian counterattack on our air base in Iraq was devastating, taking out much of it, and by all accounts (If you watched "60 Minutes" last Sunday, you know), it's a miracle that none of our people were killed--though many still suffer from brain injuries suffered because of it (Note, too, that the previous president got to the mike quickly after the attack and, upon learning of no fatalities, said "All is well," which the soldiers on the ground there would have a definite problem with.). 

The incident belied what would be our posture of dominance and retribution. It did nothing for those who would like to conclude that "we showed them." The Iranians rained 27 ballistic missiles on our people there. It means they have plenty more. It means that, despite the dirt that it naturally wears, Saudi Arabia must stay in our orbit. We can't evoke counterpoise with aircraft carriers alone.

It's a different, more dicey world out there now. To punish MBS simply and decisively with sanctions, for instance, would send a message that's now disproportionate and inappropriate: It used to be that whatever the United States did was justifiable due to its overarching military and economic power. In reaching deep into the tank and very demonstrably so, the previous president has proven that not to be the case. Should Joe Biden have acted similarly, it would have made the previous president look like a prophet and, to some, an even more twisted genius than they think.

There's nothing positive about any of that, either politically or internationally. The resonance of any policy takes place in the future, anyhow. And that has its own surprises.

Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. My second vaccine's tomorrow. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark