{"id":12235,"date":"2017-10-11T00:15:40","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T05:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=12235"},"modified":"2017-10-11T00:16:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T05:16:32","slug":"12235","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2017\/10\/11\/12235\/","title":{"rendered":"Pull This String, Then Pull That One, And Watch It Grimace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the Mideast, it looks like maybe the Saudis have caught on to the tricks of manipulating President Trump. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.al-monitor.com\/pulse\/originals\/2017\/10\/us-missile-defense-sale-saudi-arabia-thaad-thwart-russia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From<\/a>\u00a0Jack Detsch in <em><strong>AL Monitor<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"essay\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nationalinterest.org\/files\/styles\/main_image_on_posts\/public\/main_images\/the_first_of_two_terminal_high_altitude_area_defense_thaad_interceptors_is_launched_during_a_successful_intercept_test_-_us_army_6.jpg?resize=309%2C246\" width=\"309\" height=\"246\" \/>The Donald Trump administration\u2019s approval of a long-delayed, $15 billion missile-defense sale to Saudi Arabia is widely seen as a way to thwart a rival Russian bid.<\/p>\n<p>The State Department announced that it had approved the sale of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on Oct. 6, barely a day after the Saudis signed a preliminary deal for Russia\u2019s S-400 system during King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.al-monitor.com\/pulse\/originals\/2017\/10\/saudi-arabia-king-salman-russia-visit-putin.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">visit to Moscow<\/a>. US experts say the Saudis would have great difficulty operating both.<\/p>\n<p>Deploying both systems would mean \u201chaving two maintenance systems that can never cross paths, and having two spare parts pipelines,\u201d said Dave Des Roches, a former Defense Department and White House official who now works at the National Defense University in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey would be seriously challenged to employ those two systems simultaneously,\u201d Des Roches told Al-Monitor. \u201cThey would have profound institutional challenges in fielding the S-400, THAAD and Patriot [air and missile defense system] at the same time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You have to wonder if Trump or one of his appointees (Tillerson, perhaps, given that the State Department is cited as giving approval) saw the news, realized profit was slipping away, and decided to shitcan any national security concerns that might have been holding up the deal.<\/p>\n<p>While I won&#8217;t go so far to say <em>Once a businessman, always a businessman<\/em>\u00a0is a good general rule, it does appear to apply to Trump. He betrays no notion of the role of government in society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the Mideast, it looks like maybe the Saudis have caught on to the tricks of manipulating President Trump. From\u00a0Jack Detsch in AL Monitor: The Donald Trump administration\u2019s approval of a long-delayed, $15 billion missile-defense sale to Saudi Arabia is widely seen as a way to thwart a rival \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2017\/10\/11\/12235\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12235"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12238,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235\/revisions\/12238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}