Must the United States suck up to the Saudis?
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute and Matthew Yglesias of the Atlantic Media Empire protest that, contra my short post about U.S. President George W. Bush and his relationship with the Saudis, the United States needn't coddle King Abdullah. Logan writes: There's nothing about the fact that [the United States]–or Europe, or China, or Japan–consume ...
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute and Matthew Yglesias of the Atlantic Media Empire protest that, contra my short post about U.S. President George W. Bush and his relationship with the Saudis, the United States needn't coddle King Abdullah.
Justin Logan of the Cato Institute and Matthew Yglesias of the Atlantic Media Empire protest that, contra my short post about U.S. President George W. Bush and his relationship with the Saudis, the United States needn't coddle King Abdullah.
Logan writes:
There's nothing about the fact that [the United States]–or Europe, or China, or Japan–consume oil that mandates that we play kissy-poo with Abdullah or anybody else. There are a few theories why we would want to kiss up to the Saudis, and none of them hold water.
Yglesias adds:
The United States has what I'd deem an unduly chilly relationship with Venezuela at the moment, but the oil still flows and Citgo stations are still around. The process by which oil-rich states in the Persian Gulf export oil to oil-consuming states is a business arrangement for mutual advantage driven by the exchange of money for fuel.
Or, as Duncan Black colorfully puts it, "Hugo Chavez is a Tyrannical Menace to Civilization… And the Saudi royals are delightful tea party guests."
Here's the thing. As the only country with spare production capacity, Saudi Arabia plays a vastly different role in the global economy than does Venezuela. Unlike Chávez, the Saudis have the power to control the price of the marginal barrel of oil. Until the U.S. economy becomes much less dependent on oil than it is today, that means the Saudis get treated with special deference. Hence the aforementioned kissy-poo.
Logan maintains that Saudi Arabia chooses to expand or cuts back on production based on its own economic self-interest, not because a U.S. president begs it to. We have differing views on the 1970s oil embargo, obviously. Today, Saudi Arabia regularly prevents OPEC from cutting back on production, in line with U.S. requests. And then there's petrodollar recycling—the practice of investing money back into Western economies, often at key times and in key sectors. Surely this is all coincidence?
Perhaps a more hands-off approach to Saudi Arabia would work, as Logan and Yglesias suggest. But no U.S. president has dared try it yet.
UPDATE: Gal Luft has a different take on Bush's begging in Saudi Arabia.
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