Is There An Alternative To Shaking Hands With Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia has threatened that it would sell off billions in American assets if the U.S. Congress passes a bipartisan bill enabling victims of 9/11 to sue foreign governments. Hence, the President Obama government has asked the Congress to block the bill.
It has raised a number of hackles over the complex issue. As National Review's David French says: "We've long known that our "alliance" with Saudi Arabia has put us in bed with the devil. It's time for us to find out how evil that devil truly is.....I recognize that the needs of war sometimes require our nation to ally itself with dangerous regimes (see World War II for the most salient example), but there is still a difference between a shaky or temporary ally and an actual enemy - a nation that is trying to undermine American interests and kill Americans. In other words, there is a line, and it is worth asking (and re-asking) if Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are on the right side."
The Saudi Arabia issue is mud for most members of the far right, centrists, left, as well as far left. Even as everyone is curious to know what's in those pages that revealed a lot about the 9/11 attacks, the government does not want to disclose all the information related to Saudi Arabia. It only strengthens the argument that it could be pretty damning.
The problem in this question is that it creates worries on the issue of the Muslim world. The main power blocs in the Middle East being the Sunni gulf states led by Saudi Arabia and the Shiite bloc led by Iran tends to color the problem. While Iran is out, would the U.S, be able to pull out of the Middle East altogether?
As Kevin Drum says: "My loathing of Saudi Arabia is pretty boundless on all sorts of levels: religious liberty, treatment of women, encouragement of Wahhabi intolerance throughout the Muslim world, geopolitical treachery, human rights in general, and plenty of other things I've probably forgotten. At the same time, Iran is hardly a sterling citizen. They lack some of Saudi Arabia's vices, but make up for it with others (less proselytization, more export of terrorism). And at least Saudi Arabia cooperates with us some of the time. Iran wants nothing to do with us."
Hence, even though the U.S. does not like much about Saudi Arabia, the President is still not able to wash his hands off. As Drum puts it: "But if I were president, and I had to choose from a steaming pile of seriously ugly choices---with American interests, American lives, Mideast stability, and the threat of global terrorist surges all on the line? Well, I might look at everything, hold my nose, and play nice with the Saudis."
