[NOTE: This is the second in a pair of articles that take opposing points of view with regard to the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. In the following editorial, Ms. Riordan argues against the relationship. Last week we published an editorial by MHS student, Gillian Riordan, offering a counterpoint to this. You can find that article here.]

Learn more about Senior Seminar Editorials here. View a list of previous editorials here.

A Senior Seminar Editorial by Edward Corcoran, MHS 2010

Since 1933, the United States has been allied to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Although the original terms heavily favored the US, the two countries have remained together.  For the past eight years, following the September 11 attacks, the alliance has been questioned.  Home country of Osama bin Laden, the Kingdom has come under scrutiny for this connection to bin Laden, as well as other potential terrorist connections.  Also, Saudi Arabia is notorious for its civil rights violations, especially against women.  However, the US and Saudi Arabia need to stay allied.  Saudi Arabia’s culture has been religiously controlled for centuries, and has not changed much.  The US uses Saudi Arabia as a foothold in the Middle East, and buys most of its oil from the Kingdom.  The biggest reason for the alliance is the threat posed to the Saudi Arabian monarchy by Osama bin Laden, and other terrorist organizations.

Many US citizens have taken issue with the Saudi Arabian culture, especially their treatment of women.  However, the Saudi people have lived this way for centuries, without any real changes.  Also, this way of life is decreed by the Islamic leaders of the country, because the government is theocentric, and therefore accepted by one hundred percent ogf the Islamic people.  Because this is how the Saudis have lived for so long, no outside authority has the right to change their lifestyles.  At the very least, the US-Saudi alliance should not be ended over this issue.

Because the country has become so rich, the Saudi government, backed by the Wahhabi religious leaders, decreed that a percentage of every Saudi’s income be invested in different charities.  Much of this money is given to various Wahhabi charities, which use the money to create madrassas, or religious schools.  A history of Saudi Arabia and oil from Littell Publishing states, “The petrodollars were used to fund the construction of new mosques and religious schools, known as madrassas, throughout the kingdom and abroad.” (Document A)  These schools are often created in poor countries, where educational opportunities are very hard to come by.  The US should maintain its alliance with Saudi Arabia because the Kingdom’s economic success is offering so much in the way of education for the rest of the world.

Saudi Arabia has become rich because of the export of oil.  The Kingdom is the leading exporter of oil in the world, and the US relies on Saudi Arabia as a result.  According to a brief overview of Saudi Arabian culture, “Saudi Arabia is one of the leading sources of imported oil for the United States, providing more than one million barrels/day of oil to the US market.” (Document A)  Currently, this makes up most of the US oil supply, although the US is working on producing its own domestic oil.  However, until this happens, the US will collapse without Saudi oil, and by extension Saudi Arabia.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have been allies since 1933.  Although this alliance started as an economic partnership, it has become a strategic foothold in the powder keg that is the Middle East.  The only other major ally for the US in the area is Israel, a country that is unanimously hated by the surrounding countries.  The United States has taken advantage of their relationship with Saudi Arabia.  When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the 1980’s, the US started construction on military bases that its troops could use if necessary.  According to the film Saudi Time Bomb, Saudi Arabia spent fifty billion dollars over thirty five years on military technology, all from the United States. (Frontline)  The Saudi military is not capable or big enough to defend itself from other hostile countries in the Middle East, such as Iran.  The technology is there so that US troops have bases and equipment to use if they are deployed to Saudi Arabia.

Because of its success in exporting oil, Saudi Arabia reached a point where it had more money than it could spend.  Therefore, Saudi Arabia, both the government and private citizens, started sending money to religious charities, and investing money in the US Stock Market.  Saudi Time Bomb reported that *Saudi Arabia was investing four million dollars an hour, 96 million dollars a day, in the Stock Market. (Frontline)  Quite frankly, if Saudis started pulling out of the Stock Market, it would crash, and leave the American economy crippled.  Although ending the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia would not guarantee that private companies would stop investing in the US, lack of US support would weaken the monarchy’s control of Saudi Arabia.

Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, many people were calling for the end of the US-Saudi alliance.  The relationship was strained, especially when it was learned that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi.  This was deliberate.  Osama bin Laden wanted to weaken, and eventually ruin the alliance, which would weaken the Saudi monarchy’s rule.  Scott Macleod, in his article Inside Saudi Arabia, writes, “While the focus since Sept. 11 has been on the war between bin Laden and the US, the largely ignored core of the struggle is bin Laden’s appeal for the hearts and minds—not to mention the oilfields containing 25% of the world’s reserves—of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” (Document B)  Bin Laden, and other terrorist organizations, wants to remove the Saudi monarchy from power and create a more fundamentalist government with no ties to the United States.  Currently, because of United States backing, bin Laden cannot attack and overthrow the monarchy.  However, if the alliance ends, Saudi Arabia will be open to bin Laden and other terrorists.  Also, if bin Laden took over, and ended any relation with America, then investors would be forced to pull out of the stock market.  The US would lose its foothold in the Middle East, leaving Israel as the last remaining ally to America.  Therefore, the United States and Saudi Arabia must remain allies, for necessary, mutual support, that neither can survive without.

Despite the country’s connection to Osama bin Laden, Saudi Arabia needs to maintain its alliance with the United States.  Both countries invest billions of dollars in each other’s economies, for oil and other companies.  Saudi Arabia is a major military foothold in the conflicted Middle East, and the US needs it for its current operations in the area.  Also, both countries support each other in the War on Terror.  If the alliance ended, bin Laden, and other terrorist organizations, would step in and overthrow the Saudi regime.  Without Saudi oil and investments, the American economy would crash, which is why the United States of America and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia need to remain allies, at least for the foreseeable future.