When i saw the headlines they were pissed at us, i got a little nervous, then i read about their op-ed, and i don't feel too concerned. SA is an egregious state, the only reason they aren't perceived as our enemies is that they've bought their way into our graces (which is a valid diplomatic strategy).

I don't see how they can be upset that our whorish selves can't fall in love with them based on money alone.

They fundamentally seem upset that the US hasn't done enough to advance their jingoistic agenda (as much as Kerry tried with Syria). I'm late to this party, but this perfectly explains why we went into Iraq in the first place, there was probably some handshake agreement with SA to destabilize the country.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.582473

3/27/2014 11:43:10 PM

“Why are you abandoning your allies?” fumed Faisal Abbas, editor of Al Arabiya News’ English website, in an op-ed published in Arabic. “You” referred to the United States – and, more specifically, President Barack Obama, who arrives in Saudi Arabia on Friday for a state visit. Abbas, who reflects the prevailing opinions of the Saudi royal court, lists a large...

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3/27/2014 11:51:17 PM

Weird there was a working link off Google News, but I can't find it...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26758648

3/28/2014 12:11:56 AM

What do they want now? Us to do more in Syria or us to quit talking to Iran? I mean, fuck 'em either way, but I'm curious.

3/28/2014 2:32:33 AM

^ both

3/28/2014 4:17:28 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqJDuZIcQ34&feature=kp

3/28/2014 7:16:25 AM

^^^

Yeah the oped they wrote was pretty ridiculous. But they want us to attack Syria and to stop engaging Iran, which seems like it would imply the next step is to attack Iran and let Saudi Arabia pick up the pieces.

It's like an abusive relationship. I wonder what the exit strategy would even be to defriend Saudi Arabia.

3/28/2014 12:10:03 PM

Energy independence is key.

3/30/2014 12:58:28 AM

Energy independence is a myth. Global stability and cooperation is key...

The only way energy independence would work is if the government instructed or heavily incentivized a narrow set of technologies (like china is doing), which will never, and probably should never, happen in the us.

[Edited on March 30, 2014 at 1:16 AM. Reason : ]

3/30/2014 1:14:31 AM

If we converted our transportation infrastructure to operate on compressed natural gas then it's not outlandish to say that we could be energy independent from others. Of course that would be ridiculously expensive to implement.

And SA's cheap oil would just go elsewhere and probably put us at a disadvantage.

3/31/2014 10:19:33 AM

Yeah natural gas is probably the only thing we could be fully self sufficient on (can commercial planes run on this though...), but we'd run out of that soon enough.

But even to do that would take massive government intervention, that I don't think anyone would be willing to try.

3/31/2014 10:36:54 AM

We just need a Mr. Fusion just like how they had in 2015 in Back to the Future...

3/31/2014 12:06:21 PM