Senator Rand Paul Wants to End Firearm Deals with Saudi Arabia

By
Jose Nino
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After a Saudi national committed an atrocity at a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul went on Twitter urging lawmakers to end the arms deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

“Hmmm …. 15 Saudis attack us on 9/11. The Saudi government kills a US journalist. A Saudi pilot in training kills 3 of our soldiers,” Paul tweeted on Sunday. “Can anyone spot the common thread? My take: It’s way past time to quit arming and training the Saudis!”

The FBI identified the murderer Mohammed Alshamrani, a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force and student naval flight officer at the Naval Aviation Schools Command.

Escambia County sheriff’s deputies shot Alshamrani to death.

Saudi Arabia has been a longtime ally of the U.S.

Its reputation is now on the ropes after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Nevertheless, the U.S. has continued selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and was its largest arms supplier from 2014 to 2018.

During the summer, President Donald Trump made a $8.1 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

The Kentucky Senator has been highly critical of selling weapons to Saudi Arabia given its human rights track record and the disastrous war its waging in Yemen.

In an op-ed that Paul wrote for the Courier Journal back in June, Paul wrote:

“The truth is not complicated. Saudi Arabia will not change course as long as we keep the weapons flowing. Why should they?”

Paul’s non-interventionist presence has allowed President Trump to have a staunch America First advocate by his side who can hold the President accountable.

The next step is for Trump to take definitive action and actually follow through with his America First foreign policy of restraint.