r/politics • u/morenewsat11 • Oct 06 '22
After OPEC Move, Sanders Says US Must 'Eliminate Military Assistance to Saudi Arabia'
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/06/after-opec-move-sanders-says-us-must-eliminate-military-assistance-saudi-arabia5.9k
u/andrizella Oct 06 '22
The Sauds have never been our friends. We are nothing but a money machine to them.
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u/Lancelot724 Oct 06 '22
I don't know who their real friends even are geopolitically. Even the countries that work closest with them still hate them. They just hate Iran/Israel/USA/whomever even more.
Saudi Arabia doesn't seem to have very many "healthy" or "normal" international relationships.
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u/asdaaaaaaaa Oct 06 '22
I don't know who their real friends even are geopolitically.
Money, it's not one sole country/group. It just is whomever they can profit the most off of, little else matters.
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u/ONE-EYE-OPTIC Oregon Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
Like the Ferengi
Edit to add it makes me smile that even in these spicy times we can still rally around Star Trek and specifically DS9. Thanks for the smiles and laughs this morning.
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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio Oct 06 '22
At least at the end of the day Quark and his brother weren’t such bad dudes, sleazy but not evil. You didn’t see them dismembering journalists in the back of the bar.
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u/GDNerd Oct 06 '22
I will not hear such slander against Rom, he was a sweetheart through and through. Quark on the other hand def was a narcissistic sleazebag with a heart of gold.
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u/bigbadler Oct 06 '22
Rom was……. Not much of a Ferengi. Nor his mom… though, by the end she had changed their culture to be less Ferengi. Well… still hyper capitalist but less sexist. That’s the most optimistic view of capitalism in general - profiting from equality and humanism. It’s really the only competition we have against exploitation.
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u/paulydavis Texas Oct 06 '22
I just did a complete 7 season re-watch. She made it friendly to worker rights and made Rom Nagis. Not sure hyper capitalist still.
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u/TheRealDonBalls Oct 06 '22
Plus a woman in full head to toe burqa is a Ferengi’s worst nightmare
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u/Fit-Mathematician192 Oct 06 '22
Maybe for two bars of gold pressed latinum
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u/Kitsunisan Oct 06 '22
Nah, Quark has spent too much time with the Federation, he's lost his lobes. He's turned down profit so many times to do the right thing. Good person, horrible businessman.
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u/Akussa Oct 06 '22
He was doing this well before the Federation came around. Even under Cardassian rule, in some of the flashbacks/going back in time shenanigans he was shown trying to help the Bajorans in his own small way. It's literally the only reason the Bajorans would have let him stick around. Dude had a heart of latinum but was too deep into Ferengi dogma to acknowledge it.
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Oct 06 '22
They just want their lobes stroked
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u/julebebop Oct 06 '22
The ferengi? Or the Saudis?
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Oct 06 '22
How do we really know they aren’t actually ferangi’s in disguise? I mean have you ever really seen a Saudi without his headdress? Or have you ever seen both a Saudi and a ferangi in the same room? I think not.
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Oct 06 '22
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u/Living_Ad_5386 Oct 06 '22
I feel it necessary to point out Sisko did memorize the rules of acquisition as well.
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u/Uruz2012gotdeleted Oct 06 '22
That's exactly the point of the characters. To illustrate why the federation works with cultures it fundamentally disagrees with. To gain influence indirectly through sympathizers within the foreign culture.
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u/KittomerClause Oct 06 '22
but quark did smuggle illegal holo recordings of Major Kira likely as a futuristic quasi sex trafficking kind of way.
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u/cheebamech Florida Oct 06 '22
uh, where can we find these uh, records? i have a vulcan friend asking...
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u/5G_afterbirth America Oct 06 '22
Well the Ferengi did treat their women like shit too
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u/rg4rg I voted Oct 06 '22
But didn’t have slavery.
Right up to the line, economic servitude, but never crossed it.
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u/valandil74 Oct 06 '22
How many rules of acquisition do the Saudies have? Which one was used in the brutal murder of that journalist?
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u/Dong_of_Damocles Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 07 '22
34 war is good for business
35 peace is good for business
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u/newsflashjackass Oct 06 '22
The state religion of Saudi Arabia may be Islam but in practice its rulers kneel before the altar of Mammon.
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u/zephyrsapphire Oct 06 '22
Stop all military assistance, stop all sales of equipment and parts. Stop it all.
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u/JoshS1 Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
Their only regional "ally" is the UAE. Outside of that the combined pettiness of middle eastern geopolitics has everyone hating everyone. That's what happens when you have egotistical authoritarians in power. Think about who was our closest ally during the Trump administration? Basically no one. He actively burned bridges left in right as tiny power trips to inflate his in image or ego. Its the same in the middle east.
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u/Jcampbell1796 Oct 06 '22
The late PJ O’Rourke said “The Middle Eastern states aren’t nations. They’re quarrels with borders”. That one stuck with me.
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u/cw- Oct 06 '22
Think about who was our closest ally during the Trump administration?
Saudi Arabia?
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u/rediphile Oct 06 '22
And a long list of administrations before that too.
Even when multiple Saudi nationals directly attacked civilians on American soil, the administration at the time still kept them as close allies. Probably got closer actually.
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u/uptownjuggler Oct 06 '22
When Qatar started to move away from Saudi influence the saudis proposed building a canal along the Saudi/Qatar border so as to make Qatar an island
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u/22Arkantos Georgia Oct 06 '22
Important note: they wanted to fill that ditch (canal is generous) with nuclear waste.
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Oct 06 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TooMuchPretzels North Carolina Oct 06 '22
If we hadn’t ratfucked like 90% of central and south america this would be a great option.
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u/Lancelot724 Oct 06 '22
But do other parts of Latin America have the same oil reserves that Venezuela does? For some reason I only ever really hear about Venezuela's.
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u/stoutshrimp Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
Venezuala has by far the largest oil reserves. We also mainly hear about Venezuela because the Democrats and Republicans are united in their hatred of socialism, slapped them with heaps of sanctions and even supported a coup which failed spectacularly. The failed coup of Venezuela is the funniest failed coup attempt since the Bay of Pigs.
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u/DingusDojo Oct 06 '22
TIL about Operation Gideon), maximum incompetence.
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u/HildaMarin Oct 06 '22
Oh wow, TIL too. So it wasn't even a standard botched CIA clown car operation it was some mentally ill Canadian named Goudreau behind the "invasion"?
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u/ImSubbyHubby Oct 06 '22
This is extra funny since Venezuela was never really a socialist country. I know Chavez said it was but he was full of crap.
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u/cobracommander13 Oct 06 '22
Not 100% certain but historically one of the many reasons we hadn’t pushed harder for expansion in South American crude was the higher sulfur content as compared to middle eastern crude. Nowadays that is changing due to better refinement methods and deposits being found in the area.
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u/wimpyroy Oct 06 '22
If I remember correctly my dad called that oil “dirty oil” for that reason.
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u/mx3goose Oct 06 '22
I mean we literally nuked Japan and we are pretty a-ok with them nowadays, I'm sure we can reallocate some friendship dollars down that way.
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u/the_chosen_one96 Oct 06 '22
We economically imperialized them. They had no choice but to comply after being bombed
Definition of imperialism the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas
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u/identifytarget Oct 06 '22
Should have said fuck you after 9/11 and said it by going green and becoming energy independent instead we...checks notes...invaded Iraq for trillions of dollars...
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u/Think_4Yourself Oct 06 '22
AlGore 2000 stolen elections have consequences. That’s a different timeline😢
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u/SSA78 Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
We can also lessen our dependency on oil so we don't have to depend on ANY other county in the world.
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u/RedditDefendsFascism Oct 06 '22
It's insane that we would rather trade with a monarchist dictatorship theocracy than a socialist democracy. The propaganda is strong.
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u/IlikeJG California Oct 06 '22
Gotta keep ruthlessly pushing down all socialists or the socialists at home will get momentum. Socialism is an existential threat to the US status quo.
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u/ting_bu_dong Oct 06 '22
I don't know who their real friends even are geopolitically.
Donald Trump, for one.
At least, as much as narcissistic sociopath like Donald Trump can have "friends."
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Oct 06 '22
Trump is more like a tool.
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u/ositola California Oct 06 '22
Tools are at least productive
45 is more like a canister of radioactive waste coated in baby shit
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u/liberocinderace Oct 06 '22
Rule number 1 of geopolitics- there are no real friends, just mutual benefits.
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u/SameOldiesSong Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
When Russia and the Saudi’s control a significant portion of our source of energy, it’s time to move off of that source real fast.
Add it to the list of reasons we need to move away from oil to renewables ASAP.
Presumably, that is one of the reasons we are seeing the cuts now: election coming up and OPEC wants to put their political servants in Congress as much as they can.
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u/worotan Oct 06 '22
It’s been on a lot of peoples list of reasons to move away from oil for 20+ years.
But the media only reports the green stories that help keep us talking about alternatives and what is morally right rather than acting.
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u/putdisinyopipe Oct 06 '22
They do this with all stories pushing a progressive agenda lol. We get the same repeat stories and we make the same comments while fat cats are still eatin on they fancy feast.
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u/Jonne Oct 06 '22
It's been known since the oil crisis in the 70s. Unfortunately the political solution was to pay oil companies to produce more domestically and to invade Iraq instead of investing in renewables.
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u/StrangerAtaru Oct 06 '22
We should, we need to...
We won't cause we fall for this every time.
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u/hexydes Oct 06 '22
Transition should have started in the 70s when they pulled this the first time. Obviously the tech wasn't there yet, but that should have been the warning shot across the bow. Start massively investing in the space and figuring out how to make it happen as soon as possible.
This is why it's so sad to see sociopaths like Donald Trump appoint sycophants like Louis DeJoy to positions in our government where we could easily be using the purchasing power of the government to drive EV adoption...and instead they just throw the money away at their own special interests. What a shame.
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u/StrangerAtaru Oct 06 '22
The thing is change is necessary. The problem is change is also hard and those comfortable with the status quo have the money and means and rather prevent it instead of putting it to better use.
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u/Stay_Curious85 Oct 06 '22
Carter took it to heart, and of course, as always, republicans came in and ruined it. They don’t care about national security and they never have.
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u/HedonisticFrog California Oct 06 '22
At the very least, we could have moved towards nuclear power in the 70s like France did. If we had invested heavily in solar power when it became more commercially viable it would have greatly reduced the cost of it as well just like what Germany did.
Undermining electric USPS vehicles was such a terrible decision, it's the perfect use for them and reduces air pollution in cities.
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u/Polar_Reflection Oct 06 '22
They don't. At least not domestically, and not anymore. The US has a huge trade surplus of natural gas and is basically at balance with regards to oil (with plenty of reserves). The problem is that using those reserves or developing more of them only accelerates climate change.
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u/SameOldiesSong Oct 06 '22
You are right about about the surplus and of course the climate change effects we would see from using it.
I still regard them as exercising control over our internal supply because of their ability to impact the price of oil globally. They can make the oil we use more expensive, even when it is produced here. But your general point is well taken and helps clarify.
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u/Nurgus Oct 06 '22
Fuck the planet, save the human race. Electric vehicles, renewable and nuclear energy, whatever it takes.
Also save the planet and fuck fossil fueled dictatorships.
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u/hexydes Oct 06 '22
This is why we should have moved to EVs a decade ago. It's insane that the Republican party continues to fight this. Put aside every single (legit) argument about climate change...and it still 100% makes sense to do this. No more wishing/hoping/praying that Russia, OPEC, etc. don't manipulate prices and damage our economy. Shift over to EVs, shore up battery production domestically/with long-time allies, and cut those countries adrift from the world economy until/unless they feel like being a part of civilized society.
This should be the least controversial issue in our country. Every single Republican should want this for energy independence, every single Democrat should want it for climate reasons. Putting the US on an aggressive path to all-EV for vehicles by 2030 should be a non-issue. Not to mention the amount of innovation and economic creation it would drive. Thankfully Biden was able to get incentives for EVs worked in. We need more, but at least it's something.
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Oct 06 '22
If we're going to shift to EVs the government needs to subsidize buyers of them heavily. You can't buy an EV for $5,000 so they may as well not exist for a significant amount of drivers.
Or you know just make public transport work. That was always the solution.
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u/PicardTangoAlpha Canada Oct 06 '22
They did 911, financed it, supplied most of the terrorists that did it. The Iraq invasion was supposed to scare the House of Saud. Didn't work.
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u/zeejay11 Oct 06 '22
America has and will always bend the knee to the house of Sauds. Don't matter how involved they were with 911 attacks
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u/mdp300 New Jersey Oct 06 '22
I feel like the Iran nuclear deal was the beginning of a long term plan to pivot away from the Saudis towards Iran as our big oil ally there.
If the people of Iran are ever able to get rid of the fundamentalists running the place, they could potentially be a much better ally than Saudi Arabia has been.
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Oct 06 '22
If only the US hadn't ratfucked Iran because of oil interests back in the 1950s, they may have never had the harcore religious theocracy that they do now.
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u/lostinspacelac Oct 06 '22
Operation Ajax? Yeah. No wonder the Iranian government hates the US.
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u/PMmepicsofWaffles Oct 06 '22
It'd be far easier to overthrow the Saudi family than the Iranian theocracy
Saudi citizens hate their government and feel no loyalty to it. It isn't even a real country by the traditional sense, more like a mafia neighborhood. And their territory is flat, open desert. Can't defend that
Iran is a real country. And while not everyone loves the government, the Iranians will defend Iran. Can defend Iran, since it has an actual geography, an actual military, an actual country
The US should mend ties with Iran. Saudi Arabia is a liability
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u/Formal-Librarian-117 Oct 06 '22
The Americans control the Saudis just like how rome eventually controlled the huns. They got them addicted to money to the point where anyone who stood up to stop the money was stopped by the rest of their own allies who wanted the money.
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u/HodlMyBananaLongTime Oct 06 '22
Lol, the money we give them is given right back to the US military industrial complex, same with Israel and Egypt and the rest of them. It’s a way for the us to funnel American tax money to the to American Oligarchs.
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u/morenewsat11 Oct 06 '22
"We must end OPEC's illegal price-fixing cartel, eliminate military assistance to Saudi Arabia, and move aggressively to renewable energy," the senator added
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According to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon delivered at least $54.6 billion of military aid to Saudi Arabia and the UAE from fiscal years 2015 and 2021, support that included missiles, helicopters, and bombs.
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u/JohnnyButtfart Oct 06 '22
Unbelievable. The amount of good $54 billion could do for America, and the American people.
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u/Drslappybags Oct 06 '22
$54.6 in military aid. That is going to be in weapons worth. Things that are built here. I think that's going to be the issue. All of the $54 billion is what feeds the MIC.
We should have listened to Ike.
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Oct 06 '22
We should have listened to Smedley.
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u/itguy18 Nebraska Oct 06 '22
His paper "war is a racket" is amazing and the fact that it was written post wwI is the best part.
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Oct 06 '22
Well yes and no. Some of that aid is in the form of "Direct Commercial Sales", DCS exports that are tracked as sales from a defense contractor here in the US to a foreign government. DCS sales are often authorized to countries like Saudi Arabia with strict rules on what kind of technology they get, and also sometimes are counted towards the dollar value of military aid that gets quoted in the media (and sometimes DCS sales aren't, and there's no rhyme or reason as to why from the standpoint of being that defense contractor).
Many countries have laws about "offsets" with big purchases like this. For example, when a company I worked for sold $500M in advanced video tranceivers (radios that can watch drone and satellite video) to the UK, we had to commit to re-investing 20% of that to be spent in the UK. For us that meant building a high level maintenance Depot at a RAF base, investing in buying circuit cards from an approved UK-based vendor, etc.
Some of that aid is through the "Foreign Military Sales". An FMS export means that the US government buys the equipment and then gives it to foreign allies. Fewer hoops to jump through to get that export (DoD and DoS are much less scrutinizing of some technology for export licenses when they're the ones who are doing both the exporting, and adjudicating if said items are "exportable"). There's also lower profit margins for the defense company because of the way an FMS contract is structured - usually even lower than when that company sells equipment for US use.
The amount of money that goes to a defense contractor to build equipment, pay salaries, hire etc is much better from a DCS contract on paper, but usually gets a little tricky with offsets. For an FMS, we're just watching American tax dollars directly prop up foreign militaries.
That makes sense when we might need to hand the UK, or the Norwegians, or French SOF forces we work with a lot some radios that are interoperable with the ones US special operators are carrying, and that are nicer, or have more advanced features, than what our NATO allies might be fielding. It makes a lot less sense when we're handing the Saudis hundreds of millions of dollars of military hardware with very little oversight, and largely funded by our government.
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u/ninthtale Utah Oct 06 '22
Pardon my ignorance; What did Ike say about this particular issue?
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Oct 06 '22 edited Jan 04 '23
[deleted]
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u/RetroUzi Georgia Oct 06 '22
By the time he was talking about the military-industrial complex it was already entrenched. See also Smedley Butler’s speech/pamphlet War Is A Racket: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
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u/Wellbeastial Oct 06 '22
At least your taxes have been put to good use indiscriminately bombing civilians and inflicting humanitarian disaster in Yemen though right?
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u/CassandraAnderson Oct 06 '22
It worked when Trump threatened to do it back in April of 2020 if Russia and Saudi Arabia didn't slow down their oil production because of the collapsing prices. Pretty bummed that they are still dragging their feet despite the September 2022 end date that we passed.
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u/Northern_Grouse Oct 06 '22
Good fucking luck getting the GOP onboard.
They’re giddy as schoolgirls that they have more fodder to blame Biden for.
They are not working for the American people. They work for money. Money from Saudi Arabia, money from Russia, money from whomever wants to pay them to push their agenda.
Until the GOP cleans its house, it’s actively working against the interest of America.
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u/ElectricZ Oct 06 '22
Don't forget that Saudi Arabia now owns the largest oil refinery in the United States.
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u/SameOldiesSong Oct 06 '22
Ya it’s a mutually beneficial relationship: Russia and Saudis work to keep GOP in power, GOP works to keep the money train rolling to Russia and Saudis.
Where the hell are the “America First” Republicans I’ve heard so much about?
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u/CovfefeForAll Oct 06 '22
Where the hell are the “America First” Republicans I’ve heard so much about?
They don't consider Dems American, so anything to harm then is considered ok.
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u/Mjedwin23 Oct 06 '22
Marjorie Taylor green was literally saying every democrat is ‘an enemy of the state’ this past Saturday night. They’re past the Cold War rhetoric, they just want someone else to fire the first shot.
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u/RelativeMinors Oct 06 '22
"THE KILLINGS HAVE ALREADY BEGUN! "
It's that reverse psychology gaslighting. Lies about murder to spring fools into retaliation.
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u/Atworkwasalreadytake Oct 06 '22
And they cut off their nose to spite their face long ago. Nothing left to lose.
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u/CovfefeForAll Oct 06 '22
They've already cut off their nose, their ears, their eyes, and are currently working on their teeth, to spite their face.
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u/ArkamaZ Oct 06 '22
Seriously though... This is pretty much a fact and a concerning one at that. It's why they have no problem taking women's rights and shitting on the poor. They don't see "others" as equals.
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u/Vamanoscabron I voted Oct 06 '22
Visiting Russia on the Fourth of July
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u/Illpaco Oct 06 '22
But they said they went there to tell Russia to play nice so we should believe them. It's not like Republicans would just sit there and lie... right?
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u/FalloutOW Oct 06 '22
The republicans(politicians not normal folk) who actually cared about America have been out of power for decades now. Sure the democratic politicians have their issues, but not in the 'actively courting fascist ideologies and using fascist propaganda '.
As far as I've seen the past several years, I don't see a single GOP candidate that's put forward anything that doesn't stink of political fanservice or straight up fear mongering (see replacement theory bs). Furthermore, not one of the things they've put forward has been to help the everyday American.
It's all just 'getting back to the good ol days' which becomes more clear each day is 'take rights away from women, LGBT, and maybe even some poc if we can get away with it'. (Funny they never seem to mention the much, Much higher tax rates companies paid then)
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u/Northern_Grouse Oct 06 '22
“Good old days” equals slave/master system for them.
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u/Capt_Blackmoore New York Oct 06 '22
and they want every one of us who isnt rich, white and male as their slave.
and if you look at the debt that so many of us have - we're already sharecroppers.
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u/Sinthetick Oct 06 '22
Everyone assumes they mean the 50's ish as the good ole days. They really mean going back to robber barons and mining towns.
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u/pechinburger Pennsylvania Oct 06 '22
They won't be explained what is going on within their media bubbles. They only get outraged at what they are instructed to get outraged about. And big oil won't instruct them to get outraged about this.
And even if they stumbled across this issue, they wouldn't understand, because unless it's a boiled-down cultural issue then it is too boring to consider.
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u/DeekALeek Oct 06 '22
Nah, the house is rotten to the core. You can’t clean this mess because the mess is their proudest feature. The GOP “house” from the local dogcatcher to Congress needs to burn to the ground.
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u/Whahajeema Oct 06 '22
Hell to the yes! Let the Saudis stand on their own without our protection. They will fall.
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u/danimal207 Oct 06 '22
Seems crazy that we give military assistance to a country that has been shown to at least be partially responsible for 9/11
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u/GunFodder Oct 06 '22
It also seems crazy given that SA is gonna drop $500 BILLION to make a winter games resort in the middle of a fucking desert so they can host winter games.
Like, why the FUCK are we giving them support for anything, they clearly don't need the money.
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u/30mil Oct 06 '22
Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian.
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u/Publius82 Oct 06 '22
15/19, which is over 75%. In politics they'd call it a supermajority.
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u/HildaMarin Oct 06 '22
Yeah but it's not like they were personally financed by the Saudi royal family!
Oh wait.
Well at least we killed the true mastermind of the attacks, Saddam Hussein! Definitely worth all the school and baby food factory bombings and 1 million evil Iraqi peasants dead.
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u/Spicywolff Oct 06 '22
1mill reported. Lord only knows the many unwritten atrocities we pulled over there.
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u/SmokelessSubpoena Oct 06 '22
Americans pulling international atrocities? No way jose
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u/LoudBoysenerry Oct 06 '22
The average American has more in common with the average Iraqi that our own leaders. We want enough to eat, a roof over our heads, and prosperity for our families. The elites want to fuck us over and deny us those basic human dignities so they can make a buck.
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u/keepthepace Europe Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
And the Saudi secret services helped the hijackers. The GWB administration classified their involvement. It was declassified in 2016 under the Obama administration:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_28_pages
Conservatives: terrorists best allies since 2001!
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u/greenroom628 California Oct 06 '22
Conservatives: terrorists best allies since 2001!
They confirmed as much.
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u/Orbitingkittenfarm Oct 06 '22
The silence from the Republican side of the aisle on this issue is telling. They almost seem happy that Saudi Arabia is inflicting pain on America’s middle class while also actively helping Russia in its war against Ukraine. I certainly hope that’s not the case, but the reaction so far is not promising.
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u/Mephisto1822 North Carolina Oct 06 '22
They think it will help them win the election so why would they say anything?
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u/Mattyboy064 Oct 06 '22
That is the whole point in general. Oil companies (including the Saudi state owned one) want to make sure not too many Dems get elected or else they will pass Green energy legislation and reduce the US consumption of fossil fuels. This is bad for fossil fuel companies.
So, knowing that most American voters are idiots and will blame whatever President is in office for all their problems no matter who/what the cause is, they raise prices before elections to make it just that much harder for Democratic politicians to get elected. And if enough Republicans get elected, they will stonewall all progress on green energy and moving away from fossil fuels in general.
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u/I-Am-Bim Oct 06 '22
The writing is on the wall. All the US car manufacturers have already committed to not making another internal combustion engine car by 2035 and that was before multiple states added regulations. It doesn't matter who goes in office, oil will be seeing drastically less use
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u/A_man_on_a_boat Oct 06 '22
Republicans are just siding with people they wish to emulate here at home.
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u/Classicman269 Ohio Oct 06 '22
OPEC the world's biggest monopoly just proving again it needs broken up and crushed.
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Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
OPEC = Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
Edit #2: ECUADOR is not in OPEC and gets to have food exports delivered and is A DYSFUNCTIONAL, YET VERY FAIR TO CONSIDER A DEMOCRACY
All these countriesthese countries except Ecuador are controlled directly by dictatorships or presidential dictatorships. It’s not possible to violently make them capitulate (without major loss of American lives).The other option would be for NATO & India to leave the Geneva convention, form a food export cartel, embargo OPEC from non-cartel food imports, charge an tariff based on the amount of oil OPEC produces and exports to the food cartel.
The transaction would very quickly become: export oil or literally starve to death in a year or two
Edit: guys we should not do this, this is what North Korea and medieval Asia did to subjugate peasants, slavery or death by starvation. These are actions that should be taken in absolutely necessary world ending crisis when it’s actually happened (which right now doesn’t count).
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u/Luisao593 Oct 06 '22
Ecuador is no longer in the OPEC and we are not a dictatorship, our democratic system might be shitty, but it's not an autocracy or dictatorship.
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u/boot2skull Oct 06 '22
Should have stopped aid after 9/11 and pushed for electric cars.
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Oct 06 '22
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u/Lord_Fusor Oct 06 '22
That's not a political greeting. That's a "Oh shit! My guy! Let's get this thing started!" Type of greeting
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u/FanRSL Oct 06 '22
Any chance the Saudis are doing this to raise gas prices in an effort to help Trump’s re-election campaign?
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u/iLikeTorturls Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
If Saudi hijackers flying planes into three buildings didn't get us to cut off aide, some expensive gas sure as hell won't.
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Oct 06 '22 edited Oct 06 '22
I mean fuck, they’ve been taking billions upon billions from us in military aid with one hand while we pour trillions in cash for oil into the other, all the while letting them kick us in the balls whenever they feel like it.
I’d say it might be time for us to stand straight, pull up our pants, and start refusing to bend over for these guys any longer.
Edit: Saudi purchase arms from the US, I miss spoke.
They don’t spend their own money on it, they get exclusive and unfair deals, but yeah they buy it.
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u/PicardTangoAlpha Canada Oct 06 '22
n military aid
No, they buy the hardware.
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Oct 06 '22
We give them Raytheon gift cards to buy the hardware. If anything, it’s a handout to the MIC.
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u/JustaBearEnthusiast Oct 06 '22
We could start by making political donations from outside the US illegal. That would help a lot. Also prosecuting corruption, like having the Saudis invest billions into your son in law's company in exchange for military support.
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u/Capt_Blackmoore New York Oct 06 '22
We need to stop selling land and industrial capacity inside the US to international companies - who dont pay us taxes.
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u/22AndHad10hOfSleep Oct 06 '22
Comments:
People irrationally angry that countries are doing what they please with their own resources.
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Oct 06 '22
We should've cut them off after 9/11. Their government attacked us and killed thousands of civilians.
The war in Yemen/genocide/forced famine would also have been a good point to say enough.
Or how about the time they murdered Jamal Khashoggi by dismembering him and then denied it, admitted it, and we found out MBS ordered it? That also would've been a good time to put our foot down.
But they have oil! Wow. We have oil. We have the capacity to generate electricity without oil. We could've been working for decades to reduce our dependence on them. We'll cut off Chavez and his oil in a heartbeat, but he's not attacking American citizens, is he? (I am not saying he's a good leader or I support him, just that our standards are so far beyond double standards that they're officially origami at this point).
I'm not anti-Muslim. I have deep respect for the people of individual nations. Fuck MBS and the Saudi regime, though.
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u/nanopicofared Oct 06 '22
Exactly this - Let the Saudis go buy the Russian made crap equipment if they don't want to help America
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u/Gibbons74 Ohio Oct 06 '22
Why isn't Saudi Arabia paying us for that military service?
Maybe they could pay us with oil?
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u/redsoxjb Oct 06 '22
Saudi Arabia does pay money to USG / defense contractors that produce the weapons, similar to how US supplied Persia pre-revolution. If we stopped producing for them, would likely be a situation similar to Iran where US paid back $400 million in 2016 for purchases they had made before sanctions + interest
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u/PB_JNoCrust Oct 06 '22
Oh man…when the U.S. finally becomes dominantly renewable energy and moves away from these Saudi fucks….it’s gonna put a huge smile on my face
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u/castle45 Oct 06 '22
Absolutely and cut off their water for them in Arizona. Halt their Alfalfa growing operation they ship back for horse feed.
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u/Wolpfack Oct 06 '22
It would be a real shame if the water reallocation about to happen in the SW excluded their farm. A real shame.
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u/Mephisto1822 North Carolina Oct 06 '22
That would be a start. Should probably nationalize out oil too so we can actually control where it goes and not have to worry about external factors effecting out gas prices
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u/Content-Tea-2526 Oct 06 '22
I say we make a more radical movie. Move to 100% clean energy in the next decade and eliminate our need for fossil fuels.
I know it is unrealistic but imagine petro states having 0 influence?
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u/sunplaysbass Oct 06 '22
Goddamn, set a aside 500B and electrify the country as much possible as fast as possible.
So many economic and political problems, let alone climate problems, are caused by oil dependency.
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