Biden's tacit approval of MBS killing an American journalist will be the turning point event that historians will point to 50 years from now.
I don't think so. I can say "Patrice Lumumba" and unless you're an armchair Cold Warrior you'll give me a blank stare. I can say "Michael Hastings" and you have to be both a journalist and a conspiracy theorist to not think I meant to say Christopher Hitchens or Michael Stipe or something. Jamal Khashoggi was cozied up to the Turkish wing of the CIA and MBS took him out to send the CIA a message. That message was heard. The CIA is now carrying MBS' water until they can find a better option and there aren't any. It's not like Jamal Khashoggi was a geopolitical naif, either. "Khashoggi" has been a name to conjure with for 60 years. Frankly? Their last, best option was Osama bin Laden (another name to conjure with) which is probably why Ahmed Shah Massoud is dead. None of the players in this game fight Marquess of Queensbury rule and no amount of Daniel Pearl hagiography will change that. MBS is where he is because he successfully rode the power currents with American help and then consolidated. He wouldn't have taken out a Washington Post journalist if he didn't think he had total, absolute cover to do so. Joe Biden was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in like '74. He's known the game for 40-plus years. It's nice to pretend that he was shocked - Shocked! I say! - over a foreign despot knocking off an asset in protest to the CIA's kaleidoscopic influence peddling but Jamal Khashoggi was spookin' for Erdogan and MBS didn't like it. The CIA didn't do anything about it so he did. The end.
Possibly. But this is the first time the Saudis have publicly and proudly offed an American citizen, without fear or reprisal, or even much of an attempt to cover it up. I mean, it was MBS's own personal security detail who did the dirty work. He WANTED the US to know who killed Kashoggi. It's not like it's hard to find someone to drive by on a scooter and shoot him, in Erdogan's Turkey. That's commonplace. And a journalist? Really? Nobody cares about journalists any more. This was MBS testing his new power, now that he has exterminated all of his siblings and cousins. He wanted to test exactly how much clout he had pooled, so he can push the Kingdom further into the future without concerns from the US, Russia, and (possibly) China. This was a message. A test. We failed.
Crappy Ed Sheeran remake of "We Didn't Start The Fire?" Sure. Historical turning point? Not a chance. 15 of 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudi and it didn't alter US foreign policy towards Saudi Arabia in the slightest. Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi princeling whose entire career was in Saudi Arabia, other than a handful of columns for the Washington Post. Everyone involved knew he could be murdered with impunity, which is why the Turks have audio of it. Otherwise he'd be just another disappeared journalist.