"If you have enough money you can commit murder as you please"

We continue to talk about the Khashoggi murder. It seems we will go on talking much, much more. Because the incident, by its nature, has dimensions that touch everyone and concern everyone. The details of the murder have still not been fully clarified, and every newly emerging detail will continue to stoke the issue. The stances of the countries concerning the murder will continue to be news. Some may be worried that the matter will be closed in one way or another and that the perpetrator will profit.

Let us say right away that nothing will be profitable to the perpetrator, nothing can be. Even at this stage, those who committed the murder have paid the heaviest price that has been payable for a murder of this kind so far, and what they have paid is only the first installment of what they will pay. They have been disgraced before the whole world because of this murder. They have already begun to experience a humiliation that the perpetrators of no murder have experienced until now. No one dares to look them in the face.

Besides the humiliation and disgrace they have suffered, they have also suffered a very heavy material loss and a loss of power. Let the fact that they cling tightly to their present seats not mislead; the specific weight, effectiveness and power of that seat in the world is now crawling along the bottom.

Let Trump's stance not mislead, and let it not be thought that this stance will protect the killers forever. In truth, what Trump would do in the face of the CIA report was awaited with curiosity, and it was thought that this stance would determine developments regarding the Khashoggi murder. As had been expected from the start, Trump's stance looked not to justice but to material benefit.

By saying "Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but the Crown Prince could very well have had knowledge of this tragic event, maybe he did and maybe he didn't," he expressed from the start that he would not look at what the report's conclusion was, that he would only look at American benefit.

It can be thought that this attitude is the one expected of him as typical American pragmatism, and that is correct. It is not possible to expect justice from this pragmatic attitude. But pragmatism in America is not Trump's monopoly. In fact it is no one's monopoly. This means the following: there is also great benefit (pragma) for his rivals in bringing to the fore, against Trump, the horror contained in the Khashoggi murder and the visible immorality of turning a blind eye to it in the name of benefit (pragma), and let no one doubt that his rivals will cling tightly to this benefit. This also shows that Trump's turning a blind eye to the murder will cost him or his team very dearly.

Indeed, right after Trump's statement, the Washington Post, for which Khashoggi was a writer, wrote in its headline that Trump's stance means "if you have enough money and are ready to give it to us, you can commit murder in whatever savagery and barbarity you wish." How much harm this does to the USA's image in the world or to the values it claims to represent is as clear as day. From now on all dictators, terrorists and tyrants will find more confidence and courage to commit crimes against humanity as they wish, as long as they pay their bribes to the USA.

Truly, it can be said that the summary of the USA's foreign policy in the Middle East and the whole world is already this. Indeed, do we know which dictator the USA has tried to overthrow merely because he committed murder, or even because he committed a massacre? The USA's only concern with dictators and criminals against humanity so far has been that they work independently of it or do not pay it the necessary bribe or tribute.

But these policies can always be masked with ornate rhetoric. The American legend runs largely on these masks. The Khashoggi affair and the stance Trump has put forward against it take the masks down and will force those who openly stand behind this policy to pay a political price.

We cannot of course say that justice will be done forever, but it is certain that it will cause a serious earthquake and political shock. So much so that the murder will be profitable neither to the one who did it nor to those who ignored it or protected and shielded its perpetrators.

There are still those who say that the USA or Trump planned and carried this out to force MBS to support certain policies. Yet one of the clearest facts from this scene is that the Khashoggi murder's having developed this way saddens and harms Trump and Israel rather than MBS.

Let us ask just this simple question, which is in fact sufficient as an explanation: what did the USA and Israel want that MBS did not give?

The Israeli Zionist press and political circles have been in black since the Khashoggi affair. Let it not be misunderstood, the mourning is not for Khashoggi but for MBS. What has happened to a solid ally like MBS, who may come once in a century, grieves them and Trump exceedingly.

They are probably also angry at his incompetence, thinking he has made a mess of even a simple murder that they would probably not have objected to at all. But one would really have to strain the limits of reason to think that they are behind something that puts such an ally in difficulty.

In sum: murders can be overlooked for money, but in the Khashoggi murder a process is underway in which those who cover up the incident, those who overlook it and those who take the bribe for it will also be held responsible for the murder. How far this process will go, we cannot know. The incident has not slowed down; we will watch and see.