Kevin Tracy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2022-10-12
Biden's Threats to Saudi Arabia Are Empty Without Domestic Oil Production
Joe Biden's White House and State Department put on a massive diplomatic operation to convince Saudi Arabia to maintain or increase oil production at an OPEC+ meeting that happened last week. We now know the full-court press failed miserably as Saudi Arabia and many of the smaller states that follow it voted unanimously to cut oil production by 2%.
Saudi Arabia stressed that the move was not meant as a slight towards the United States; which helps patrol the Persian Gulf to protect oil exports and other cargo vessels from Iranian interference and terrorists. However, Joe Biden, desperate to keep gas prices down during record high inflation less than a month before his party faces mid-term elections, has now vowed that "there will be consequences for Saudi Arabia.
Like everything these days, the Democrats are blaming Russian interference. Higher oil prices mean bigger profits for Russian oil exports. If the Saudis did cut production to appease the Russians, it speaks volumes to the damage this administration has done to the US relationship with Saudi Arabia. Transitioning from an alliance with the United States to one with Russia (and even China) harms Saudi Arabia in every way except for the political cover they want in the United Nations. Saudia Arabia has a well documented history of brutal laws targeting women and sexual minorities. The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has also presented himself as a strongman not afraid to send hit squads into other countries to assassinate journalists and critics of his country. As far as I'm aware, the Democrat hypocrisy of ignoring the rights of women and sexual minorities in Muslim nations and communities is still alive and well. However, the Biden Administration has been pushing Saudi Arabia exceptionally hard for their use of violence both against rebels in Yemen and their critics (even though Democrats ultimately proved they had nothing but more empty threats). Still, it's difficult to imagine the empty threats towards Saudi Arabia would make Saudi Arabia wish to answer to Russia; which maintains a military alliance with Saudi Arabia's nemesis (Iran) and can provide no real security for the Persian Gulf. There are a lot of ways to look into this, such as Saudi Arabia perhaps seeking a more direct and violent response to Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Russia looking to profit by selling arms to both sides. As we've seen in Ukraine, Russian weapon systems and training are no match for their American counterparts. Whatever the case may be, this was an enormous failure of the US State Department and the Biden Administration.
Punishing Saudi Arabia will be difficult, though. Saudi Arabia only collects about $58,000 in US financial aid every year. Our military aid offerings are a bit more complicated. Since 2003, the vast majority of US troops in Saudi Arabia have been gone. All that is left behind is a USMTM, a military training program to help train the Saudi military in strategies, tactics, and modern weapon systems. Under the 2017 US Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia, the Saudis are purchasing approximately $24 billion in military equipment from the United States every year until 2028. If the US pulled out its remaining training forces and weaseled out of the 2017 arms deal, it would only further push the Saudis to rely on relationships with Russia and China as their alternative arms manufacturers.
Of course, any moves to stop defending the Persian Gulf will only further hurt the American economy as terrorism, piracy, and Iranian interference will only get worse; leading to more frequent disruptions of the global oil supply. In fact, even if the Biden Administration does come up with a clever way to punish Saudi Arabia for putting their national interests before those of the US Democratic Party and their woke agenda; all it will do is risk even higher energy prices in the United States. Thanks to the green blindfold over the eyes of Democratic Party, the United States is no longer energy independent and now even more at the mercy of international oil prices than we already were.
This leaves the Biden Administration capable of nothing but another round of empty threats towards Saudi Arabia; which is all we've ever heard from them.
Oil is not just used for combustion engine cars. We use it to heat our homes and US industry needs it to manufacture virtually everything from flooring, glues, lubricants, finishes, plastics, metals, paints, and more. The Biden Administration's combined failure of promoting domestic oil production while also alienating us from our allies in OPEC is a devastating failure that will be felt for generations if the next President can't undo one or both of these failures.
