“Give me liberty or give me death.” The legendary words of Patrick Henry are what this country was built on, but in recent years, the U.S. has ignored those words. A country built on liberty should not support tyrannical regimes like that of Saudi Arabia. The reality of their dark human rights policy was pushed into the spotlight with the murder of anti-regime journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This, however, is just one instance that has luckily caught international attention. Mohammed Bin Salman, the acting king, has an ugly past that includes suppressing their people, committing horrid war crimes and the murder and kidnapping of countless journalists and political officials. Those who support close relations with Saudi Arabia are only concerned with the resources and money that we gain from them. The U.S. should not be involved in billion-dollar arms deals or any deals with regimes as tyrannical as Saudi Arabia’s. The Saudi Arabian argument is one of monetary gain vs. human rights.

Saudi Arabia has a despicable human rights record that the U.S. cannot ignore. Journalists like Khashoggi risk their lives to expose what he called the “iron curtain” of Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi was reportedly dismembered with a bonesaw by Saudi men for his disagreements with the regime. The voice of the people has been silenced by Salman, and Khashoggi is not the first to face his wrath. Saleh al-Shehhi, a colleague of Khashoggi, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 over his negative  column on the royal court.

One week after a progressive investment conference at a Ritz Carlton, Salman executed a ruthless “corruption” campaign in the same hotel. More than 200 officials were arrested, and those officials were forced to pay exuberant fees to be released.  In August, Salman had “a dozen female activists” arrested for campaigning for the right to drive. Saudi Arabia’s aggressive foreign policy also is creating problems. The careless bombing in Yemen has resulted in over 16,000 casualties with over 1,200 of those being children. This “climate of fear and intimidation” as Khashoggi called it is not something that should be associated with the land of the free.

Supporters of American-Saudi relations focus on economic and political gains, but they ignore the values and principles that the U.S. was built on. They ignore the millions of scared Saudi people who are forced to live under an oppressive regime. They claim that the U.S. is not responsible for what Saudi Arabia does, but the U.S. currently has a 12.5 billion dollar arms deal with them. So is the U.S. really not at fault when it is American bombs killing children in Yemen? Is the U.S. not at fault when it is American weapons that are used to imprison human rights activists? Is the U.S. not at fault when it is American dollars that fund so-called “corruption” campaigns? Are oil and money really worth more than lives? The U.S. cannot ally itself with a country like Saudi Arabia, no matter the monetary or political gains. As far as I know, Patrick Henry never said, “Give me liberty or give me oil.”