The name Jamal Khashoggi is slowly fading from the news, but I cannot get it out of my head. Hearing President Trump dismiss his murder as “a sad situation … but it is what it is" fills me with shame for our country.
The premeditated nature of Khashoggi's grisly murder is the stuff of the modern slasher/horror genre in films. In a movie theater, I can gasp and cover my eyes; in real life, the horror of it haunts me.
Khashoggi was a journalist who dared to criticize the repressive rule of Saudi Arabia's crown prince. He held to his principles even when the Saudi regime forced his exile from his native Saudi Arabia. He must have enjoyed working briefly for a “free press” at the Washington Post (Trump's “enemy of In the people”).
Trump’s casual dismissal of this state-sanctioned murder reminds me that he and the crown prince are men of such wealth and privilege that they feel a Machiavellian entitlement to everything they want. Trump wants to proceed with billions of dollars in sales of arms to Saudi Arabia to fight a genocidal war in Yemen. He claims he is doing this “to put America first.”
In my opinion, ignoring the scores of CIA agents who have carefully compiled proof of the prince’s culpability in favor of his own personal conclusion, Trump has once again demonstrated his entitlement and lack of concern for human rights. Does this make America “great”?
So I lie awake at night, my country disgraced again as hypocritical in the eyes of the free world, contemplating Trump's choice of newer, better allies: North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Why don't I feel “great”?
Eileen Vestal, Salt Lake City
