Other than the togas worn in the days of the Holy Roman Empire
(which was not holy, nor Roman and, in due course, not an empire)
we’ve never cared much for men wearing bed sheets as clothing,
including or especially, the Ku Klux Klan and the Saudis.
American presidents, especially Clinton, historically could not
have treated the Saudi monarchs better had they expected to find
that their sheets covered the curves of an 18-year-old belly
dancer. But of course, it was not daydreams of desert suntanned
flesh that tilted American policy towards the Saudis; rather it was
our national thirst for a black liquid.
Successive American presidents, excluding the present one, have
acted as if Saudi oil were more important that Israeli blood. Even
spilt American blood was also dishonored in our quest for oil.
During World War II, Roosevelt compromised our national integrity
and honor when, in pursuit of Arabian oil, he cozied up to the
Arabian leader, the pro-Nazi Ibn Saud.
It is time to heed Lincoln’s advice that “the dogmas of the
quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present.” In this case it
has been a past only made “quiet” by this country simply ignoring a
Saudi national policy that affronts the sensibilities of Western
civilization.
One thing should be abundantly clear, even to the Arabists in
our State Department: The Saudis are no friends of the United
States. It was not by some geographic accidents that 15 out of the
19 terrorists that attacked the United States on September 11 were
Saudis, and bin Laden himself is a Saudi citizen, not to mention
that a majority of the gangsters who are enjoying our hospitality
in the pens at Guantanamo Bay are Saudis. The Saudis celebrated
when we were attacked and still continue to fund the terrorists’
training schools. Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal
officially announced that they would not permit their country to be
utilized by the United States in a war against Iraq.
The Rand Corporation, a respected independent think tank,
rendered an opinion to the Pentagon:
“The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from
planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist
to cheerleader…Saudi Arabia supports our enemies and attacks our
allies.”
Certainly, the responsible leaders of our government see Saudi
Arabia for what it is: a repressive, autocratic state unfriendly
and hostile to the United States — indeed hostile to the
principles of Western civilization itself — a culture more devoted
to the Koran’s teaching, “Then, when the sacred months have passed,
slay the idolaters wherever ye find them,” than to any desire for a
reasonable relationship with the West.
The Saudis’ control of 25 percent of the world’s oil reserves
has historically allowed them to blackmail us. Now, President Bush
seeks to improve domestic production and increase our national
reserves. Added to this is the possibility of Alaskan drilling in
previously protected lands. Russian oil will eventually become
available to us at competitive rates. But all of these things lie
in the future. Now, the Saudis supply us with 15 percent of our
oil. It is unrealistic to believe that any near-term conservation
measures will allow us to save this much oil from domestic and
military consumption. Oil is to our civilization as water is to our
bodies.
As our country expanded westward, the settlers were initially
devoted to farming and cattle-raising. Not infrequently, situations
arose where, unless payment was made, the owner of a water source
denied the flow of water to those further on downstream. Putting
aside the morality of demanding such tribute for the utilization
of, in the last analysis, a God-given natural resource, things
resolved themselves on a practical basis: if the amount demanded
was reasonable and within the ability of the person downstream to
pay, payment was made. If this were not the case, the water way
would be opened by force, so that all might enjoy its necessary
benefits.
If oil is as essential to us to allow the continuum of our way
of life, in much the same way water was to our early settlers,
there is no good reason why we cannot simply take over the oil
fields with force of arms, distribute the oil to the world at fair
rates, and establish a democratic government in Saudi Arabia, under
our protection, to forever insure the flow of the black gold. The
entire world would benefit from the trickle-down effect of the
establishment of fair oil prices. It is one thing for DeBeers to
artificially control the price of diamonds, since diamonds are
hardly a necessity — give or take assorted wives and girlfriends
— it is quite another to do this with oil, a commodity at the core
center of modern civilization.
The common refrain that America is not in the nation-building
business is nonsense. We are in precisely that business. We did it
with Germany and Japan and assorted other regimes, from Nationalist
China to Vietnam, where the recipients of our efforts were known to
us to be corrupt scoundrels.
There is a tendency to make orgies of inaction in the name of
geopolitics and the pleasures of contemplating actions and
reaction. Here the course is simple and the rewards immediate and
direct. Somebody should let the Saudis know that if they do not act
sensibly and clean up their act, the engines of war will be warming
up and the various Sheiks should start making appointments to meet
their money in Switzerland.
