The Voice of Mordor: US Strategic Mistakes
Not long ago, Saudi Arabia was perceived as nothing but a colony of the US, or its oil barrel. It was almost impossible to imagine that the kingdom’s authorities could openly act against the US. All the more so because there are US military bases on Saudi territory
The Saudis themselves, in exchange for complete submission and loyalty, were allowed a lot of things that others were not. The US has long overlooked the human rights violations in the Kingdom, and they were quite happy with the very rigid clerical regime. If you compare Saudi Arabia with Iran, Iran is a much freer country, but for the USA, Iran is a pariah country, while there were no questions about Saudi Arabia.
But things are changing very fast in our world. And the US has made several strategic mistakes regarding Saudi Arabia in recent years. The first one was made years ago, during a major economic crisis, when Saudi Arabia wanted to take some of its finances from the US in order to prop up the economy. And it was turned down. The Kingdom had the money, but could not use it. The master did not allow it.
Then Saudi Arabia swallowed the situation, but remembered.
The second big mistake was the reaction of the US authorities to the incident with Saudi journalist Jemal Khashoggi. They got too hung up on the incident and it resulted in direct accusations against the Saudi crown prince, who is now in fact running the country.
And the Saudis could not forgive the Americans for that. Especially since they felt very well that the former master’s power was no longer the same, and soon their “friendship” with him would soon be more costly than profitable. Also, the green agenda, imposed by the U.S., irritated the Saudis very much, who live solely off their oil.
So, the oil barrel revolted.
First, the Kingdom openly mocked Joe Biden, who came to Saudi Arabia to cajole more oil. Not only did Joe Biden come back with nothing; he came back literally disgraced. Not only were all his requests denied, but he was ridiculed on Saudi TV and in the press for a long time.
Today, the Kingdom has dealt the Americans another blow: the Saudi authorities have agreed with Russia to cut oil production by two million barrels per day.
On the Saudi side, this is direct and blatant support for the Russian Federation, against which Western countries are now trying to play the oil market.
The Saudis’ decision not only nullifies all dreams of some kind of “price ceiling” on Russian oil, but is in fact a declaration of an anti-sanctions war. Western countries will now have to take some urgent action to stabilise the oil market, which may soon actually explode.
And this will be a super task for them, because other oil-producing countries are behaving like Saudi Arabia, and Iran and Venezuela will not help the west with oil at any price. The only viable option would be to completely lift sanctions on the Russian oil sector, but that would amount to defeat.
And the West is not yet ready for that.
Voice of Mordor