You hear a lot about how the Saudis and the Israelis are key US allies in the MIddle East. Those two countries, and Egypt, get the vast majority of US economic and military aid in the region, and most of the US arms sales. We provide the Israelis with $3 Billion a year in aid, access to F-16 fighters, AH-1 Cobra gunships, Armored Personnel carriers, rifles, ships, chemical warfare gear, and Patriot missile batteries. The Saudis get M-1 Abrams tanks, F-15 Eagles, E-3 AWACS, Patriots, and a whole slew of US military defenders and advisors. The Egyptians get AH-64D Apache attack helicopters.
Other than maybe the Egyptians, we don't get much back for our investment. Sure we have access to Saudi oil supplies for our us and our friends (although we get most of our oil from Venezuela), but it costs us a fortune in military deployments, and leaves us open to a whole slew of terrorists. Some of the terrorists see our presence in Saudi Arabia as "defiling" their holy sites in Mecca. Some of them dislike us for supporting the most oppressive regime on the planet. Regardless of the actual reason for their dislike, this is largely what caused Saudi citizens to launch the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The Israelis also do us more harm than good. While we provide vast quantities of economic and military aid, our support of the Israelis at all costs, provides more reason for Islamist terrorists to hate us, and worsens our relations with other governments in the region. In the past Israel has also shown that it is more than willing to sell American military secrets and designs to China (one example being the design for part of the F-16's fuselage). They've also shown a willingness to sell nuclear weapons designs, and help US competitors (China again) develop advanced C3I systems based on US/Israeli technology (in this case an advanced airborne radar system).
Lately there's been a lot of press coverage about the role of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's visit to Crawford, Texas for some more of the President's "Cowboy Diplomacy", and a fair amount of it has illustrated the problems with dealing with the Saudis.
* Funding madrasas, which teach extreme anti-Western Islamist ideas, around the world.
* The Saudi eduaction ministry published a text for all students called Monotheism which has a passge reading, "The Hour will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews, and Muslims will kill all the Jews."
* On Colin Powell's recent diplomatic trip, the US delegation was requested to have no women for certain parts of the trip. Condoleeza Rice may not know much about the Middle East, but as NSA she should've had the option to be there on all parts of the trip, if needed.
* Harassing foreign journalists in Saudi Arabia, including going back on existing agreements to allow access, confiscating laptops, video tapes, etc... for no reason.
* New calls to use oil as a weapon against Israel, the US, and allies.
* Government media denouncing the US in violent terms.
* Close government ties to Islamist extremists such as Ossama bin Laden.
Dealing with the Israelis is no better, and is well documented. They've ignored calls for restraint and withdrawals from the West Bank, knowing there would be few repurcussions. Troops in the West Bank have been ordered to commit atrocious acts. There is no end in sight for the violence in the Occupied Territories.
It's time to start working on our own energy independence, and cut these people loose. Drilling for more oil in places like ANWR, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Rockies is not the answer. We have lots of options for energy:
* Wind Power. Even during the California energy crisis, the wind power generators said they had enough capacity to supply the state with electricity, if only they had been able to get the high capacity lines to their wind farms installed. It didn't happen because it wasn't in the interests of the California's other utilities.
* Bio-diesel. We can recycle all of that used fast food oil to make diesel fuel for cars and trucks across the country. It even costs about the same, and solves a problem for the fast food industry. In a pinch, new canola oil made from corn crops across the country could be used. The farm lobby would love it.
* Ethanol. See my earlier corn comment. It also provides fuel for regular gasoline engines, with fewer pollutants.
* Fuel efficient cars. This is really self-explanatory. Make everything a hybrid. Ford's 2003 Escape SUV will get 40 mpg.
* Solar Power Satellite Systems. Put up some big satellites to generate electricity, and beam it to earth. This would require a real space program.
This lets us stop kow-towing to the Middle East. Then we have to deal with the pro-Israel lobby, to get tough on the Israelis. We can even let them fight among themselves with impunity. Maybe then we could have real peace in the Middle East, even if it is the peace of the dead.
Posted by Chris at April 27, 2002 11:30 AM