Congress has a long, regrettable history of staging hearings that do little more than create numerous opportunities for individual members to grandstand before the cameras. Such was the case with recent Senate hearings on the merger agreement between two major pro golf tours: the PGA and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
On the surface, this is about the Saudi regime using its ample checkbook to do a bit of “sportswashing” – buying goodwill though sporting events – to cover up for its many, manifest and horrifying human rights abuses.
As Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement:
“A regime that has killed journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, fostered the war in Yemen, and supported other terrorist activities, including 9/11. It's called sportswashing.”
Fair charges, each and every one.
But does the Saudi plan to whitewash its failings really run through…the PGA Tour?
That's…laughable. Handing checks to rich pro golfers isn't going to make the vast majority of Americans suddenly break out in the warm fuzzies for the Saudi royal family. Were Congress genuinely interested in holding Saudi Arabia to account for the litany of wrongs Sen. Blumenthal outlined, then it would take precise, immediate steps to cut the regime off from U.S support.
The Biden administration, however, is not onboard with that idea. And regional concerns about Iran, a traditional Saudi opponent, will very likely keep our government deeply entwined with theirs.
Which may help explain the mild kerfuffle over the proposed gold merger. It's easy. It's discrete. It doesn't involve big geopolitical issues, affect arms sales, or affect the flow of petroleum products across the globe.
In other words, it's political theater. Utterly inconsequential and totally beside the point.
But because it is theater, the hearing offers members the chance to look and sound like hard-boiled realists in search of truth and decency. When the sad fact is most of them were just looking for the nearest microphone.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The United States nor any other country hasn’t the right to accuse the Saudi’s of murdering journalists or dissidents .The United States has a huge body count when it comes to people that go against the left. Whistleblowers, informants and people that speak up against a corrupt political figure . So, don’t accuse someone of something when our record of these same crimes is much worse. Don’t get me started on our past history, that we now are finding out is all a LIE !
You thrash ’em, Ellen! The pot had better not call the kettle black. The level of upper crust corruption we see now is likely unprecedented in our history. And it will get worse before it improves.
What a joke that is- as if the current regime here does not have the same human rights “wrongs” – who jailed innocent bystanders because they attended a rally? Who condoned attacking a foreign nation that did not declare war on us, hunt down one of their citizens and assassinate him, get one of their own Ambassadors killed and did nothing to answer his calls for help – we have much NOT to be proud about ! All nations need to stop with the blame game and clean up their own act.