With Friends Like These …
There are no easy solutions to this problem … and yet there are …
Saudi Arabia – a critical player in OPEC – is behind a drastic increase in oil prices within the last year, especially within the last couple of weeks.
They have come to an agreement with Russia – the same country that has mercilessly attacked and invaded a sovereign nation while we do nothing about it – to cut oil production by at least 20%.
This has resulted in gas prices in places like Canada to jump overnight from $1.30-$1.45 to $1.70 and beyond.
The Saudis have been forging stronger ties with Russia, which desperately wants higher energy prices to help it evade Western sanctions and put more pressure on the West to back away from support for Ukraine. So this move clearly reflects the triumph of Putin’s interests over America’s (again bringing us back to the specter of Trump).
Then there is the matter of the missing top secret documents Trump had at Mar-a-Lago. We have seen no proof that the Saudis are involved in that saga, but it’s understandable that so many conspiracy theories would revolve around such speculations.
After all, there is so much about America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia that is shady, and this is just what we know about.
One thing is certain: Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states have made a very strong statement in rebuffing requests from the United States not to cut production at a perilous time for the world economy. You could try to use the vocabulary of diplomacy to put what happened into context. But another way of looking at it is that the United States sent a long text message to its supposed “friend” group in the Middle East imploring them not to do this and got in return a single emoji with a raised middle finger.
And then there’s the ongoing, longstanding, no-questions-asked manufacture and sale of Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) and other military assets to the Saudis via the Canadian government and various private companies.
In August 2022 ALONE, Canada sold more than $130 million in LAVs to the Saudi regime.
Why?
Why do we continue to support the genocide that’s happening in Yemen perpetrated by the current regime in Saudi Arabia?
If we’re an independent oil-producing nation (which we’re not – we make tar at massive expense to the environment), why do we continue with this charade.
It’s time we truly sat down and asked ourselves who our friends should be on the global stage.