Why Trump Can’t Retreat From The Middle East

If America doesn't need Saudi oil anymore, why is it still wooing crown princes, especially when American public opinion isn’t really on board? Oil Price asks in its article Why Trump Can’t Retreat From The Middle East. A Business Insider poll from September 2019 showed that, on the best of days, only one in five Americans viewed Saudi Arabia as a U.S. ally--even fresh off an attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities, and even when that attack was widely believed to have been orchestrated by Iran. 

Outside of the White House, there was little sympathy coming out of the United States. The most recent Gallup Poll on the subject, conducted in February 2019, showed only 4% of Americans with a “very favorable” view of Saudi Arabia. In fact, most view Saudi Arabia in a worse light than Venezuela. At the same time, America is not reliant on Saudi oil. 

Over the past decade, U.S. oil production has doubled. In terms of extraction, dramatic media reports have emerged at various times over the past couple of years to the effect that the U.S. has surpassed Saudi Arabia as a crude oil exporter. 

In June 2019, the U.S. did indeed surpass Saudi Arabia--briefly. For a better understanding, data shows that Saudi Arabia exported 7.38 million barrels per day in 2018. The U.S. exported 2 million barrels per day in 2018.  In October 2019, U.S. imports of Saudi crude oil reached their lowest point since early 1974, at 419,000 barrels per day. 

Globalization Changes Things

Today, however, dependence isn’t just about physical oil. It’s about markets. 

In the era of entrenched globalization, it doesn’t matter if you’re an importer or an exporter, you’re still beholden to the global market and its volatility. Independence, in other words, doesn’t mean what it used to mean backed when Western powers started drawing lines in the Middle Eastern sands over oil. 

Whether independent or not, the U.S. will still import oil because sometimes it’s more convenient and because not all oil is the same and imports arise from a need to efficiently supply various refining capabilities that process different types of crude. 

So, what does America (or, rather, Washington) need Saudi Arabia for, exactly, if not for oil?

The answer is simple: oil is one thing, but oil money is quite another. One form of ‘dependence’ is traded for another--and that’s global. 

Not only has Saudi Arabia just hit its highest level of foreign investment in the Kingdom (up 54% in 2019 from the previous year), but Saudi money is pumping into every major global sector, with Fintech increasingly driving investment. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, partnered with Japanese Softbank Group with a $100-billion investment in the tech sector that began in 2016 and is eyeing $2 trillion in investments. 

This is also a highly lucrative venue for the defense industry, with “successive U.S. governments” having received “billions of dollars from selling American weapons to Saudi Arabia”. 

Foreign Policy Based on Oil, Any Way You Look at It

Without the need for Saudi oil, U.S. foreign policy on the Middle East is confused, at best. Trump has varyingly said he would like to get out of the Middle East entirely and deployed additional forces at the same time. 

There was no American military response to the attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities last September. That was a Saudi problem, even though the intention of the attack was likely to provoke the United States. Instead, the U.S. deployed 14,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia, which Trump claims are being funded “in cash” by the Saudis to the tune of $1 million (a notion being debunked). No one is sure what this means, exactly, other than that the U.S. military is providing a lucrative private mercenary service even in venues it claims it no longer has a foreign policy interest. 

Likewise, in Syria, we saw a dramatic announcement of a withdrawal and a stepping aside to allow a Turkish invasion in the north. Immediately afterwards, we saw a reversal, with U.S. troops redeployed to “protect” Syrian oil. 

Then, most spectacularly, we have the U.S. assassination of an Iranian general on Iraqi soil--again in a region in which the latest version of American foreign policy claims to have no skin in the game. 

The only true form of oil independence is being completely disconnected from global markets, and that means a continued “interest” in the Middle East. 

The fact remains, that oil independence doesn’t account for the fact that one-third of the world’s oil still travels through the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. still imports plenty of oil from plenty of countries. 

Everyone is connected to global supply, and if that global supply is disrupted, the American consumer will feel it. The market knows this, but it’s the only “entity” that truly understands globalization. 

American public opinion is bound to continue to disagree, and that will likely get worse in the wake of the December 6th mass shooting by a Saudi serviceman at a Pensacola, Florida, air base. While it’s not getting a lot of attention, the U.S. has expelled 21 members of the Saudi military following this incident, though none were said to be connected to the accused or of aiding the Saudi Air Force lieutenant who committed the terrorist act that killed three sailors and wounded eight others. 

What the public should be up in arms about is not only that this was a “terrorist” attack, but that 17 of the 21 cadets expelled in the aftermath were found to have possessed online terrorist material, while some also possessed child porn. 

That US-Saudi relations are still as strong as ever should be clear by the lack of any of the usual Twitter vitriol coming from Trump over the incident. While the FBI has called this a “terrorist” incident, Trump has refrained from being too critical of the Saudis. 

At the same time, indications are that the Saudis, for instance, were not warned of the assassination of Iran’s General Soleimani in Iraq, which means they are being left out of key Iran-related policy decisions in Washington to some extent. 

Really what it all means is that washing Washington’s hands clean of the Middle East isn’t feasible after close to a century of entrenchment. 

Trump may think he’s going to get out of the Middle East, but there is no escape without removing sanctions on Iran. As long as sanctions persist, the Iranian regime will provoke. 

And even then, in the era of globalization, it’s all about global investment funds. Saudi Arabia has one of the biggest. At this point, there is no way to remove the Middle East from the global equation.