United States Should Ratchet back Relations with Saudi Arabia to Cool

Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir’s editorial “Why Iran is Still Dangerous” reads like a Washington lobbyist pushing his client’s agenda in a serially one sided manner. The counter argument is that Iran is in an existential fight to defend its Persian Shiite sect of Islam from radical Sunni Arabs, fueled principally by Saudi Arabia. Rather than taking sides in this civil war in the region the United States should ratchet back relations with Saudi Arabia to a cool level.  Our fracking oilmen have provided us an era of energy independence in the U.S. where we can now correctly assess the deficiencies of our supposed ally in the Middle East. The House of Saud is a regime with so many conflicting issues and a propensity toward indecision leading to chaos that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appears logical and organized in comparison. Many will say that Saudi Arabia is a cornerstone of stability in the region but its recent indiscriminate air strikes in Yemen to push back Shiite Houthi and the execution of a Shiite Cleric increasing sectarian tensions combined with oil prices that will make its social contract of distributing largess difficult and finally a geriatric royal lineage with thousands of contenders belie that claim. Our best tactic toward a goal of pacifying the Middle East is to withdraw support of this senile regime which exacerbates rather than pacifies tensions in the region.