Senator Wonders How Much Longer U.S. Will Blindly Support Saudi Arabia
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chris-murphy-us-saudi-arabia-relationship_us_56aba630e4b0010e80e9de9
The U.S.’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has weathered disagreements over how to rein in Iran, regime change across the Middle East and several large military adventures. Now it faces a new question, which was crystallized Friday in a speech by influential progressive Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
"No one has a particularly credible long term strategy [for the Middle East] because it would involve facing some very uncomfortable truths — about the nature of the fight ahead of us, and imperfections of one of our most important allies in the Middle East,” Murphy said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
to: The carefully worded address pointed to Saudi Arabia’s backing of extremist Islamic ideology and its reckless military intervention in Yemen as evidence of the need to question unwavering U.S. support for the kingdom.
“For all the positive aspects of our alliance with Saudi Arabia, there is another side to Saudi Arabia” that America doesn’t often see, Murphy said. “And it is a side that we can no longer afford to ignore as our fight against Islamic extremism becomes more focused and more complicated.”