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And yet, it created the opportunity to invade Iraq and take out Saddam.
Prior, Saddam had decided to trade oil in currency other than the Petrodollar, USD- a US toll imposed on OPEC oil trade. Saudi has been the glue that has held that sweet deal together.
At the time that GW took us into Iraq the second time; I recall that his ratings were the pits. He was anxious to do anything to get his ratings back up.
At the time that GW took us into Iraq the second time; I recall that his ratings were the pits. He was anxious to do anything to get his ratings back up.
Yup, we were heading in to a recession after the bursting of the tech bubble.
Our alliance with them is a deal with the devil, autumn. If you think Syria is bad, you don't want to see what Saudi Arabia without the royals would look like. They are more "moderate" and western-orientated than their subjects. Imagine Saudi Arabia, with all of that oil, being controlled by ISIS. Very likely scenario should the royal family ever be toppled. I wish we didn't have to deal with them, but we do.
I see what you're saying but ISIS hasn't attacked the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has! ISIS is probably financed by the Saudis and is the reason WHY they haven't overthrown the Kingdom!
15 with Saudi passports attacked. This is not the same thing as the country attacking.
There has been some movement to crack down on shell corporations doing illegal activities: https://maloney.house.gov/media-cent...l-corporations. Possibly the Saudis pulling their billions out of America might be the only way that we could actually 'see' where all of their money is invested? Nothing is transparent anymore!
I am a little afraid of any American involvement in the Middle East. We seem to make things worse and we will never get any credit for 'improving' anything over there. But I am not crazy about any country trying to blackmail us into not investigating - it sounds like a great reason to investigate!
The US has been up to the eyeballs with the Saudis for more than 70 years.
We are fighting against the Sunni ISIS in Iraq. On the other hand, we are fighting against the Shiite Houthis in Yemen in order to aid the Saudi's, a Sunni nation....
Time to pull out, let them busy themselves with killing each other, if that is their primary goal, and cut our losses. Why get dragged into another endless war?
Democracy will never take root in these countries by force. So what if the Saudi 'kingdom' falls? Maybe 50 years ago they were vital, but are they really that now?
For those who hate Bush cause he went into Iraq and rid the world of Saddam, the overthrow of the Saudi royal family would have the same result, as we have now in Iraq; but worse. And if you think that only the Bush family have been lenient and friendly with the Royal family, you better wake up. Every president we have had in the past x-number of years has been friendly with the Royal family cause they controlled the oil.
And for those who say we should just go in an take all that oil....
First, Europe, Russia and China would never allow that?
Second, we DO NOT have a strong and capable military to do that; even if Russia and China turned their back.
And third, we have a coward for a President. Do you honestly think he would do anything like that? Heck, he is afraid to send in troops to rid the world of ISIS. So yea, he is going to go into the Arabian peninsula and take over all the oil.
Did I miss the headline announcing the world no longer needs oil?
This is not limited to fuel for cars and heating.
It's amazing how many goods we take for granted are made from oil byproducts.
So long as most oil/ byproducts continue to be traded in petrodollars, demand for the USD is artificially propped up. Once oil switches to another currency or a basket of currencies, demand for USD will substantially decline which will impact everyone.
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