Elliott Abrams: More Realpolitik, Please

[Machiavelli]

Elliott Abrams
National Review
November 21, 2018

As a card-carrying neoconservative, I am usually a critic of realpolitik. But in judging the Trump administration’s current response to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, I find myself thinking that more realpolitik would lead to better policy.

Here’s what I mean. The president has made two statements, both of which refuse to break with Saudi Arabia or its crown prince: his formal White House statement and his comments to reporters when about to get into Marine One and depart the White House. Both constitute a kind of realpolitik. The formal statement begins this way: “The world is a very dangerous place!” In both statements, the president notes the advantages that accrue to the United States from our relationship with the Saudis, principally the arms sales to the kingdom, its investments in the United States, its help in keeping oil prices down, and its assistance against terrorism and against Iran more generally...

Nixon did not presume that the choices were all or nothing, to embrace China or to break with it. Similarly, if the Trump administration view is that we should not break with Saudi Arabia (a view I share), then the next step is not to embrace Saudi Arabia but rather do what Nixon did: Specify to the Saudis what they need to do so that they will not be seen as “a repressive throwback to a dark age of the past.” Send the Saudi foreign minister to fix things with Canada. Figure out a way to release the blogger Raif Badawi and the female Saudi protesters who appear to have been badly abused since their arrests. Reunite the Gulf Cooperation Council...

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Elliott Abrams

[Fishrrman]

Here's MY "realpolitik" on the subject:

Kashoggi was an "internal issue".

The Saudis settled it as a matter of "family business" as does the Mafia right here.

If the murder has stirred up the waves, I expect the Saudis will "settle it amongst themselves".

Nothing for us to do to intervene, or for that matter, to even understand what's goin' on...

[TomSea]

 

Fine article for those who actually read it.

I think this is a good quote per Nixon commenting on the Tianammen Square massacre:

"I have always believed that a nation’s policy must not be affected by soft-headed friendship, but only by hard-headed reality.”
https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2017/07/rn-deng-personal-letter-solely-china/

And so on as the rest of the article details.

Interestingly, the article reads that this letter Nixon wrote to the leaders of China and some time after his administration had finished, was not known for some time.

[Oceander]

Yeah, I guess we’d all yawn and snooze if a US citizen was killed in a US embassy on the orders of the president, too.  Nothing to see here, folks; just an internal matter.

[sneakypete]

Yeah, I guess we’d all yawn and snooze if a US citizen was killed in a US embassy on the orders of the president, too.  Nothing to see here, folks; just an internal matter.

@Oceander

Is this your official hissy-fit for the day?