US - Saudi Relations Are Dangerous

In a recent article in Time magazine, it stated the alleged consequences in close Saudi-U.S relations. As it is known, 11 Saudi’s have been declared suspects in the 9-11 bombings. In the article it stated that close Saudi relations is a dangerous business but that the U.S is slowly cuddling back up with Saudi Arabia. I will take that idea a bit farther and develop it into a theory as to what could happen after the US leaves Iraq,

With a civil war blazing across the land between 2 Muslim factions, Sunni and Shiite, Iraq has becoming a breeding ground for militias and terrorists.

On the American home front, citizens are crying out for a withdraw of troops. Well, what if the United States goes with what the people want and finally retreat from Iraq? This is where Iran and Saudi Arabia come into play.

It has been stated by U.S intelligence that Iran has been aiding Shiite insurgents. It is also widely assumed by many U.S politicians and experts that the Saudi’s have been aiding Sunni insurgents.

Since Iraq has had a Shiite government, it has instigated a certain amount of panic within the Saudi regime. Reacting to the installed Shiite government, the Bush administration has urgently been trying to assemble a Sunni faction inside the government to even things out a bit and to ease the worries of the Saudi monarchy.

If the US were to eventually leave Iraq it would not be surprising to me if a proxy war broke out between the two Muslim powers. Saudi Arabia backing the Sunnis and Iran backing the Shiite armies.

The way Iraq is presently, when the US leaves, the state will be up for grabs among the Muslim factions. To make this theory a bit more interesting and extreme, a region wide war could break out between Sunni and Shiite nations. However, this concept is pushing it, as only 2 nations are Shia dominated (Yemen, Iran)

The US would face a major dilemma as to what they should do in terms of supporting their main source of oil and their middle eastern ally, Saudi Arabia.

If the US didn’t support Saudi’s interest in Iraq would they relinquish the exportation of oil to the US? Would we only now have 1 Middle Eastern ally (Israel) now? That would not be very strategic. No, the US would be dragged back into Iraq soon after their pullout. Maybe not in the current, forceful way as today, but in support of our ally, supplying equipment and other resources to secure our positive relations towards our main supplier of oil.

The overall point is that, it may be in the US’s best interest to slowly start phasing out Saudi and US relations. If we do not stop ourselves from being juxtaposed next to Saudi Arabia politically, we may be headed for the above.