Today, The U.S. Congress overrode President Barak Obama’s veto for the first time since he has been in office. You may ask what could have possibly evoked this override? Was it a bill to end world hunger? Or maybe a plan to end war between countries. Well, the answer may actually prove to be the exact opposite. Our congress has just forcibly enabled 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia. The bill became a law with a 97-1 Senate vote and a 348-77 House vote. While 15 of the 19 plane hijackers were Saudi, that by no means, gives us the right to sue an entire country. The Saudi government continues to deny any connections to the 9/11 attack– the U.S has even gone as far as to initiate investigations and have found (gasp) absolutely nothing that links the Saudi Arabian government to the attack. So who’s brilliant idea was it to go ahead and legalize the bill anyways?
This bill has received a lot of backlash before it was even overridden. For one, the very nature of the bill completely ignores the logistics of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act which is supposed to grant immunity to all countries who are not designated terrorist state sponsors. So we’ve already broken at least one rule just to get this bill passed. Additionally, the Saudi government gave the U.S fair warning that if we legalized this bill, they would possibly sell millions of dollars in American assets, so add that to the list of things that could (and probably will) go wrong when this bill is put into full effect. Plus, the U.N even begged President Obama to stop this bill in the name of principle. We can’t just break previously established acts that promote peace, just because we feel like it and because we’re America. Not to mention the lives of U.S. service members that are put at risk as a result of rising tensions and the inevitable presence of ridiculous lawsuits around the world against the U.S. that will surface.
I’m not seeing where the reward outweighs the risks in this situation. I cannot even begin to understand the pain that families of 9/11 victims are still enduring. And I understand the vengeance that they must be seeking. But I’m not sure that this is the way to go about it. We can’t blame a whole government, a whole country, for the horrible acts of select native terriorists. This bill opens the door to so many other unnecessary problematic issues that may arise with other countries. If the U.S. can sue Saudi Arabia, then why can’t Japan sue the U.S.? Or why can’t Africa sue Europe? And since when is the U.S. actually advocating for reparations? Because it definitely wasn’t when the thousands of African Americans begged for a mere apology. Or when the thousands of Japanese Americans asked for the same.
The point is that this isn’t the way to go about the U.S. quest for justice. This will most likely complicate our foreign relations even more. And yeah, sure, maybe there’s a small chance that everything will miraculously go in our favor, but I just can’t see that future. I’m sorry, but I’m with Obama on this one.
