The Saudis have been making fools out of us since the oil embargo. Most of that has been behind the scenes. If you ever wondered why Obama made an ass of himself over Syria and why he bombed Libya, now you know. That was the Saudi pulling Obama’s strings.
Don’t forget 9/11 was a gift from the Saudis.
We need to pursue energy independence as our highest priority. Eventually that will greatly reduce cash flow into the Middle East and the sources of funding for terrorism.
The Saudis have accepted nothing but US dollars for their oil for the past 40 years and have thereby turned the US dollar into the de facto global reserve currency. If you want to buy oil, you need to maintain a large supply of US dollars to do so. That has created a massive global demand for US dollars. The Saudis then took those dollars and bought our debt with them. In return, we have provided them the military hardware that keeps the house of Saud all powerful within their region. This arrangement, orchestrated by one Richard M. Nixon, has been extremely beneficial to both parties. If this arrangement were to suddenly come to an end, it would likely bring about the fall of western capitalism. Furthermore, the Saudis need us as much as we need them. And OBL perpetrated 9-11, not Saudi Arabia. We should be helping Saudi Arabia with their Syria problem IMO but Americans have lost their appetite for war after Iraq and afghanistan. Ghadaffi was trying to trade oil for currencies other than dollars btw. So was Saddam Huseein. So was Hugo Chavez. So is Iran.