6 ms·
> There is no reason the U.S. should be allies with the House of Saud. There is a very good reason: 1) The US needs a stable oil supply 2) The US needs globa
by hackuser 10y ago
> There is no reason the U.S. should be allies with the House of Saud.
There is a very good reason:
1) The US needs a stable oil supply
2) The US needs global stability, for which the world needs a stable oil supply.
3) A stable oil supply requires a stable Persian Gulf region.
4) Leverage and influence with the most powerful nation in the Persian Gulf (with the possible exception of Iran, an enemy of the U.S.), is very valuable and perhaps necessary to stability in the Persian Gulf.
That arrangement worked for decades, and look what's happening now that it fell apart.
Recently things have changed a little: The US has become less dependent on Persian Gulf oil due to domestic supplies; there is/was a global glut of oil, making the world less dependent on the Gulf; US-Iran relations improved somewhat; and Saudi religious fundamentalism has gone from being their internal problem to a global problem.
Also, US policy changed: The US became a cause of instability in the Persian Gulf with the invasion of Iraq and the reckless disregard for the need to find a stable, political outcome for that country (no planning for occupation, etc.). Also, the Arab Spring created a dilemma: Support democracy or support short/medium-term stability? At times the US chose democracy, further undermining current stability (democracies would of course be more stable in the long run, but getting from here to there involves a period of instability).
- int_19h 10y agoAnd why is Iran an enemy of US?
- travmatt 10y agoI can't tell if you're genuinely asking, but Iran is widely considered one of the largest sponsors of state-funded terrorism in the world. Lots of self-flagellating Americans like to ask about the US/Saudi Arabia, but Iran's IRGC and esp. Quds Force are famous for their successes in cultivating and logistically supplying terror groups (think Hamas, Hezbollah) - if the US took such an intense and long-term view of the ME I think the world would be different.
- int_19h 10y agoAny such assessment largely depends on your definition of "state-funded terrorism". Saudis, for example, fund a massive network of Salafi religious schools all over the world, that has a very impressive record of radicalizing their students. Said students then end up running organizations like Caucasus Emirate or Daesh, or just blowing up local targets of opportunity (including moderate Muslim clergy that is trying to actively counter Salafi propaganda in their area, thereby preventing or at least limiting further radicalization). But most importantly, I was asking about US. How many terrorist groups in US does Iran fund, and what damage have they done to date?
- ionised 10y agoThe US toppled their democratically elected government a while back and the Iranians (rightly) hold a grudge and are highly suspicious of any US foreign policy.
- int_19h 10y agoYes, but that was many decades ago. For comparison, in the same time frame, US has actually invaded a different country outright, with a total death toll for its residents being on the order of hundreds of thousands even for the most conservative estimates. And these days, said country manufactures a lot of goods for sale in US, and has recently signed a weapons deal. I'm talking about Vietnam, of course. The primary reason why Iran is the enemy of US today, is because US actively supplies its regional enemies - Sunni monarchies like Saudi Arabia, for example. Stop doing that for a decade, and I bet you that things will change significantly. The problem is that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy loop - US supports KSA and others to counter Iran, which Iran [justifiably] interprets as hostile, and acts accordingly, justifying more US backing of its enemies etc.
- dforrestwilson1 10y agoExcept we don't need a stable global oil supply. We WANT a higher oil price so we can sell our supply outside of the U.S. Following Neocon logic, the best outcome for us is a war that closes off access to Middle Eastern oil, forcing more countries to purchase energy from us. The old Neocon argument is no longer relevant.