One of the biggest failures of the preceding Bush Administration was in its dealings with Saudi Arabia, not only involving energy policy, but in its dealings with the Saudi regime regarding the threat of radical Islam. However, it is too easy to push all the blame off on Bush. He only failed to deal adequately with the threat. He did not create it. He only inherited the same viper that a host of preceding presidents nurtured at their breasts for decades. Now, the head of the snake knows that one day soon, the axe might fall and sever his head. When it happens, there is little he can do about it, but for now, he can desperately try to spew his venom in the desperate hopes of holding off the inevitable.
It really takes some degree of hubris for the Saudi Oil Minister to lecture to an American audience on the need to keep investments in oil up to sustainable levels. These people have had us in a grip or iron for going on four decades, and for six have built up a level of wealth and influence that would be the ency of Croesus. In return for our dependence on Saudi oil, our money has gone to fund radical Islamic schools-madrassas-that have taught hatred of America and the West in general, and have otherwise supported a terrorist network that ultimately led to the 9/11 attacks. While the Saudi elites have otherwise engaged in luxurious lifestyles and profligate spending, they have kept their people's standard of living down to where the Saudi people are easy prey to the radical imams who seem to command their allegiance in ever-growing numbers. Despite this, we have reciprocated by selling advanced weapons technologies to the Saudi regime, in large part to supposedly protect them from these same fundamentalists.
Ironically, a great lot of what the Saudi Oil Minister said in his Houston speech is true. There will need to be continued and probably increased investment in oil for the next two decades, at least. Energy independence isn't going to come overnight. It goes without saying, however, that the Saudi regime is unlikely to complain about American Democratic politicians limiting oil exploration within the US or off it's coasts or, in the case of ANWAR, banning it completely.
The idea that Saudi Arabia might probably at one point in time by necessity be powered by solar energy is probably cold comfort. After all, even though that particular area is ripe for solar energy development, in market terms, they would nevertheless be just another cog in the wheel.
This is our chance now to get some degree of reasonable control over the Saudis, if we but would. The radical Islamists should all contemplate going into hiding, though I doubt they are feeling undue concern. They are probably all too aware that, under current conditions, they still have little to worry about. On the other hand, the regime might actually adjust to reality by providing some degree of advancement to the well-being of their subordinated population. It might be the one chance for the regime's long-term survival.
The most likely long-term scenario, however, is that the Saudi royal family and other wealthier members of the regime will eventually abandon the country, doubtless immigrate to Europe and America, for the most part, and leave the Arabian peninsula a veritable no-man's land, a desert fit for nothing but the annual pilgrimmage to Mecca. When they leave, they will take their untold billions of dollars in wealth with them. In fact, it is probably already to a very large degree safely deposited in various Swiss and other such accounts.
Should this potential future Saudi exodus ever finally come about, the radicals may have by that time lost any appreciable degree of power and influence as well. After all, they will have lost their major source of patronage. They and their followers will be sufficiently isolated, and the world if only for this reason will be a better place.
