That said, I think Saudi Arabia is capable of withstanding mere “influence,” given that they’re sitting on a giant lake of easily and cheaply extractable oil.
Looking at Saudi Arabia, and its monarchy (I mean, the presumptive heir, Mohammed bin Salman, has dissidents murdered and dismembered and packed into suitcases in an extraterritorial embassy), shouldn’t there be a point where we say “no more”?
I think we hit that point quite a while ago. Yes, it will cost us. So what? Is that the deciding factor? I mean, yes, of course it is, but should it be the deciding factor?
Absolutely, and concerns about reserve currency and all that are beyond my understanding.
That said, the idea that Saudi Arabia, which is a barbaric absolute monarchy, should be treated as an equal, rather than a pariah, by any nation that fancies itself a democracy, strikes me as ridiculous.
The US does business with thugs all the time. We’ve installed and supported thugs. Shit, we were doing business with the Taliban in the weeks before 9/11.
As for the reserve currency thing, let’s not forget that the federal reserve and the treasury have released massive amounts of currency and debt into the markets. Banks actually have more cash than they know what to do with at the moment, but they will have to start putting the money somewhere soon. We could have an inflation problem soon if we don’t already have one, and that inevitably leads to interest rate hikes. Raising interest rates with large sums of debts could be painful. We’re potentially in a debt trap. Mess with Saudi Arabia, and they could decide that dollars aren’t necessarily an investment class that suits them well - maybe yuan would be better.
The fact sanctions would harm the poorest is irrelevant to US decision making. They could do something today that wouldn’t hurt poor Saudis at all: stop selling their government weapons.
Stopping the Saudi government funding mosques to promote their own brand of extremism would also be a good idea.
How much are your principles worth to you? I don’t know if it would really be ‘fiscal suicide’ to dump Saudi Arabia now, but if so, that’s something the US government could be working to change. Could have been working on for a long time now, and haven’t, and still aren’t.
It sure didn’t help, but Chávez and Maduro made plenty of mistakes of their own. Treating the oil industry as a golden egg and failing to invest any money back into it; firing or driving away competent workers and installing their cronies. Allowing the economy to become almost entirely dependent on a single commodity and failing to save anything for a rainy day. What’s impressive is that the US-backed opposition is even more incompetent than the current socialist government.
And there - 1, 2, 3 - is why nothing will change. We want their oil, their support against Iran, and their money buying our weapons. And while we might be able to diminish the strength of the first two, the third will always be the biggest driver. The MIC rules all.
Trumps first big overseas trip was to Saudi Arabia, remember the photo op where Trump was staring into a mystical looking glowing orb as the Saudis looked on — he saw a huge opportunity for arms sales.
One of his best friends, a member of the inaugural committee, was recently indicted for illegally acting as an agent of the Saudi government, he was actively intervening with the Trump White House on behalf of the Saudis.
Then there was that one time that Saudi gaslighted Trump into supporting their aggression against Qatar
Or how about the time that David Pecker’s National Enquirer, a magazine that for a while existed mostly to assist Trump in his extortion and blackmail schemes, published a special issue all about the wonderful and civilized investment opportunities available in Saudi Arabia.
Then there was the involvement of Jared and MBS in the Bezos phone hack.
And let’s not forget, because it’s related, is that the reason the Trump White House, the freaking executive branch of the US government, was running this extortion campaign against the owner of the Washington Post because he wouldn’t shut up about the cold-blooded execution of one of their journalists- by the Saudi government. A murder that the Trump administration covered up.
Now you motherfuckers are whining because the Democrats aren’t being mean enough to the Saudis? Some trumped-up moron that’s trying to troll the board posts possibly the most ridiculous criticism of Democratic policy that I’ve ever heard, and you guys start frantically running your fingers through the turd he dropped looking for something that’s not shit because you feel you have to be bipartisan or something? Fuck that noise and fuck being nice to conservatives.
This is the kind of both-sideism that pisses me off. Is Joe Biden’s Saudi policy perfect? No. Should we be doing more to prevent human rights abuse there? Yes.
But this is absolutely insignificant compared to the four years of abject corruption that characterized the Republican relationship with Saudi Arabia under Trump.
It’s not that simple. If the US doesn’t sell them weapons, China and Russia will. Sunni Arabia is also a strategic ally against Shia Arabia, specifically the China-Iran strategic and economic alliance.
America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and various other unsavory alliances is largely about the escalating proxy (cold) war with China.
Doesn’t seem terribly likely that China would sell them weapons if China is really allied with Iran. Why does the US have to continue being enemies with Iran anyway?
