US President Donald Trump (L) and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Riyadh May 20, 2017. © Mandel Ngan / AFP
CBS: Fact check: How many jobs does U.S. defense work with Saudi Arabia actually create?
Global outrage over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of an alleged Saudi Arabian hit squad has raised the heat on U.S. companies to justify doing business with the kingdom. President Donald Trump seemingly has fewer qualms, recently defending the countries' commercial ties -- especially when it comes to supplying Saudi Arabia with arms -- by saying the relationship creates lots of U.S jobs.
But how many jobs? Mr. Trump said at an event last week that agreements between American defense contractors and Saudi Arabia account for 600,000 jobs in the U.S. We set out to verify if that number is correct.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: President Trump says 600,000 defense related jobs are dependent on Saudi Arabia .... but there are only 400,000 employees in the top five defense firms, and they take care of everyone, including the Saudis. So is President Trump wrong .... not really. To begin .... there are more than just 5 defense contractors. And while the top 5 may only have 400,000 employees .... they subcontract a lot of their work to other suppliers and manufacturers. My gut tells me that there are a few million who are employed directly and indirectly by the defense industry, and a few hundred thousand (maybe not 600,000 but a few hundred thousand) are dependent on Saudi Arabia in some capacity. And another thing .... we are not talking about $110 billion in arms and support, we are talking about $350 billion and more .... President Trump Signs Massive $350 Billion Arms Deal With The Saudi King (May 20, 2017)
3 comments:
$350 billion... good one WNU. You should go into comedy.
BTW your gut doesn't count.
"Global outrage over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of an alleged Saudi Arabian hit squad"....
There might indeed be global outrage, but why is there? Murder is foul, yes, but murder happens all over the globe, perpetrated by governments, crime syndicates, and individuals. Why is the world focused on this particular murder, committed in a foreign land by a foreign government? Look at the way heads of Western nations are jumping to fall in line with the "outrage" manufactured by the media! In the meantime, they likely are paying but scant attention to the countless foul murders of their own citizens, committed within their own national boundaries. These leaders are hypocrites, they are cowards. The West has no leaders of any courage except perhaps President Trump. The rest await cues from the media to instruct them how they should react, how they should feel. How dispicable they are.
Its more a question of whose sphere of power do you want Saudi in? The Chinese would happily be the Saudi benefactor. An oil life-line and an opportunity to interfere in the Persian gulf Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Chinese naval bases in Saudi. Great.
I think everyone needs to quell all the sanctimonious fake outrage over the Khashoggi murder. Especially Erdogan, Merkel and several US politicians.
Don’t recall near this much angst over the Benghazi attack. That murdered 4 Americans.
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