The only thing that explains this unprecedented snub is OPEC countries, no doubt at Russia’s urging, being hell-bent on showing that they no longer need the United States … for anything.
This, because they now have the backing of China as a more indulging economic superpower, and of Russia as a nuclear power that is becoming such a rogue state it might be willing to help one or more of them (say Iran, Saudi Arabia, or even Venezuela) become the menacing nuclear power North Korea is today.
Is this more about Saudi betrayal, self-interest, or revenge?
Some Democrats in Congress are furious about OPEC+’s decision to cut production by 2 million barrels of oil per day starting next month, and are calling to reexamine ties with key oil producers, and even withdraw U.S. military support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
A trio of House Democrats all in competitive reelection contests — Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, Illinois Rep. Sean Casten and New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski — called the move ‘a hostile act’ and a ‘turning point’ in the relationship between the U.S. and the two Gulf states late Wednesday night and introduced legislation to remove U.S. military support from the two countries.
(NPR, October 6, 2022)
Of course, Saudi Arabia is OPEC’s de facto leader. More to the point, Biden may have wished to overlook the manifest contempt MbS, the kingdom’s de facto leader, has for his leadership of the free world.
In other words, Biden may have thought all was forgiven after he humbled himself by flying all the way to Saudi Arabia to make nice. This, after he accused MbS of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi and vowed to make his country a pariah on the world stage. But MbS seems determined not only to never forgive Biden, but to make America pay for doing so.
That’s why this cut calls Biden’s bluff. Even worse, thought, it helps Putin execute his genocidal war in Ukraine as much as Biden’s military aid is helping Zelensky defend his country.
Arguably, it’s tantamount to a declaration of war. After all, sources say Biden warned OPEC that the United States would deem a cut in production of just one million barrels a hostile act. So what do you think OPEC is saying by cutting it by 2 million? This clearly compels Biden to marshal a proportionate response with dispatch!
“You’re either with us, or against us”…?
Alas, such are the geopolitical dynamics afoot as the world slouches toward WWIII – with a newfangled Western alliance supporting Ukraine and neo-Axis powers supporting Russia.
And you can bet Putin would like nothing more than to cover up the war crimes and military blunders he’s committing by metastasizing his invasion of Ukraine into a global conflict by any means necessary.
In the meantime, besides the looming ravages of climate change, the whims of oil producing autocracies only reinforce the existential imperative for Western democracies to wean themselves off oil and gas. Once they do, they can leave these smug OPEC countries to choke on their own smog; that is, when they’re not killing each other pursuant to centuries-old sectarian rivalries.
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