Dilrook Kannangara

USA surrendered at the feet of 9/11 attackers 15 years later. Despite Congress passing a bill to allow US citizens to sue Saudi Arabia for 9/11 compensation, President Obama vetoed it. A sure sign of cowardice and surrender to Saudi Arabia. Long gone are the days of Pearl Harbour when Japan paid a very heavy price for attacking US territory. Not anymore. Saudi Arabia got away with attacking New York on September 11, 2001.

A couple of months ago a classified 28 page report on 9/11 was released by a US government agency. Originally it implicated the Saudi regime. Saudi Arabia warned USA not to release it as it is threatening to bring down the US government by dumping US stocks valued at $950 billion. Fearing the unthinkable, the US government complied. The report was toned down and removed references to Saudi monarchs before releasing.

President Obama’s veto of the bill prevents US citizens from seeking compensation from the Saudi regime. USA has become a mere mercenary of the Saudi monarch. Its involvement in Libya, Syria and Iran are manipulated by the House of Saud. USA meekly complies with all Saudi demands. Recently the US Congress blocked a large weapons sale to Saudi Arabia citing massive human rights abuses in Yemen. However, once again the US president vetoed it allowing the sale.

All this makes a mockery of what USA did in the name of 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq. Highly publizised ‘war on terror’ went in search of masterminds of 9/11. But when they were finally identified, USA hesitated. Obviously Afghanistan and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Unable to punish Saudi Arabia, USA went after two Sunni controlled unstable regimes in Kabul and Bagdad. Even those wars were lost by the US led ‘coalition of the willing’.

Saudi Arabia is not the only country to cow down USA. China did the same in South China Sea; North Korea in rapidly expanding nuclear weapons development and Russia in Crimea. Even Iran defied US dictates and continued to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. These are sure signs of a rapidly waning empire. USA continues to bully small and powerless countries while bending backwards to appease other superpowers.