Our ties with Saudi Arabia aren't necessary

Wednesday, November 21

While the president might fall for the claims that it would be economically ruinous to cut ties with Saudi Arabia, we know better.

President Donald Trump thanked Saudis for lower oil prices on Wednesday, a day after he defended his decision not to punish Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Insulate the U.S. from the Middle East

By Robert Robb

The death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi should occasion a rethinking of U.S. policy in the Middle East. It won't. But it should.

For a very long time, the consensus view of the foreign policy establishment in both political parties has been that the United States has two fundamental objectives in the Middle East: Protect Israel and keep the oil, particularly Saudi oil, flowing to fuel the world economy.

Lately, at least neoconservatives have added a third: Contain and deter Iran.

Subjected to a cold-blooded assessment, none of these constitutes an actionable security interest for America.

These days, the United States doesn't rely much on Middle Eastern oil imports. Moreover, the Saudis are no longer in a position to weaponize oil exports, as they did against the United States in 1973.

The House of Saud relies on two things to keep their rickety hereditary monarchy in power. The first is brutish repression. The second is subventions and subsidies to keep the populace sedated.

Simply put, the House of Saud needs the money.

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Despite duping U.S. presidents of both parties and virtually all of the foreign policy establishment, Saudi Arabia has never been a U.S. ally. The only interest the House of Saud has ever had regarding America is to get us to fight their fights for them.

In that, they have succeeded mightily. And never more so than with the neoconservative conviction, embraced fully by President Donald Trump and his administration, that containing and deterring Iran should be a principal U.S. objective in the region.

Saudi Arabia has persuaded U.S. leaders that we should enter its regional competition for influence with Iran fully and unreservedly on the side of Saudi Arabia. And align ourselves completely with the regional Sunni powers, particularly Saudi Arabia and Egypt, irrespective of how reprehensible their domestic policies are or become.

Which brings us to Israel. Iran does still threaten to destroy Israel, and it also issues threats against the United States. But unlike America, Iran can reach Israel.

By contrast, Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni regional powers have established a sort of cold peace with Israel.

Israel is a brave country in a dangerous neighborhood. It is the only true U.S. ally in the region.

The United States should be willing to sell Israel the armaments needed to protect itself. And defend the country against calumnies in international forums, such as the United Nations.

But U.S. interests aren't advanced by offering Israel formal or de facto security guarantees. Its fights shouldn't automatically become our fights.

There is a six-decade history of maladroit U.S. involvement in the snake pit of the Middle East's geopolitics. Not much of an argument can be made that those interventions have made the Middle East better. Or America safer.

U.S. interests lie in being as insulated from the snake pit as possible.

Robert Robb is a columnist at The Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. You can follow him on Twitter: @RJRobb.

Extinguished flame

David Fitzsimmons/The Arizona Star/PoliticalCartoons.com

What our readers are saying

It's sad that Americans fall for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's lies. A journalist was murdered by Saudi Arabia's government, and President Donald Trump praises them.

— Jeff Sparks

Trump has done nothing? His administration already took the same action as most of our European allies: sanctions. Trump has decided to protect U.S. jobs and keep gas prices lower to help our middle class.

— Larry Gilbert

The U.S. moral reputation has just fallen to a new low. Trumps discredits evidence from the CIA for his own benefit, thinking it would help his party. In Trump's world, what is the life of one Washington Post journalist if it helps him win elections?

— Nobby Grimsby

Saudi Arabia has come a long way under Salman. He has sidelined religious clerics who controlled the kingdom, and he has provided women the right to vote and drive. And perhaps more changes are coming.

— Tom Ponmalayil

What others are saying

USA TODAY, editorial : "President Donald Trump has shrank from blaming the 33-year-old Saudi leader, whom Trump sees as a vital ally in countering Iranian influence and in brokering a Middle East peace deal. ... According to the CIA, a crown prince with a history of repressing dissent acted ruthlessly and recklessly to silence a critic, in rank violation of American values. Anything less than severe sanctions — diplomatic, economic and military — is tantamount to letting him get away with murder."

Richard North Patterson, HuffPost : "As usual, our presidential apprentice is bargaining against himself: The Saudis need our military hardware, the best in the world, and America is energy self-sufficient. An end to military assistance would ground the Saudi air force; the threatened oil boycott would wind up benefiting America and devastating the Saudi oil industry. Moreover, once King Salman dies, some within the Saudi royal family reportedly hope to replace MBS (the crown prince) with a saner man, his uncle. Given all that, any competent president would figure out how to use our leverage to separate the interests of Saudi Arabia from those of Mohammed bin Salman."

Christopher Dickey, Daily Beast : "Of course we know Trump is a sucker for authoritarian assassins: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Rodrigo Duterte, to name a few. But MBS now appears in a class by himself, not for the quantity of his killing (the foolish Yemen war aside) but for the quality of his ineptitude. Trump has scrambled to cover for the crown prince in the Khashoggi affair, wishing it would all just go away, but he continues to be confronted by the growing realization that this murderous Saudi who promised him so much is not only reckless; he's inept."

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