So, what do we do about SA? refuse to buy oil from them, weakening the US global position and hope that causes less harm than the actions of SA itself?
Go to war with SA, payed for in dead American soldiers, and hope that the reputation of the US doesn't suffer as a result, esp as Americas enemies spin the even as another example of American Imperialism / justify their own invasions?
Lots of grey comments all over in this thread. Not a very balanced discussion...Or maybe balanced in how much everyone is downvoting one another?
The Turks had a wiretap in the murder room!
Not much to get upset about.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/us/politics/biden-mbs-kha...
Fortunately we're fracking now so as soon as we wrest control of the reins of power over our government from Middle Eastern lobbyists we can forget about all those stupid wars we're fighting. So, probably in about a century...
In the short term, obtaining energy independence is helped by no longer appeasing SA. When oil prices are higher, domestic production becomes profitable. That's if the current prices aren't just a result of the SA strategy of periodically flooding the market to bankrupt high-overhead producers.
As for your "we’ll see if there’s a grand strategy behind it", that strategy is obviously domestic production and renewables. Looking forwards instead of looking backwards.
"Nice PR" is always going to be a side effect of any policy, depending on your viewpoint of course.
It seems Biden has a number of pages about his strategy, which seems heavily focused on renewables: https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/
This is an alternative path to energy independence which also helps with other goals such as reducing climate change impacts
Nevertheless, I want our country to alienate other countries whose heads of state order journalists strangled or murdered by any other means. I want to live in a society like that. I want that even if I know my American government is hardly free from guilt.
We have energy independence, and cutting off the pipeline and going green improves that. You know who isn’t energy independent? China. Why is China staking out the area around the Spratleys? Oil is a huge part of that.
I think real politik entails telling the Saudis no más and becoming pals with the Iranians instead. The Persians aren’t our enemies and they aren’t selling peoples organs out of death camps. If they become our homies we have a line from Iraq to India of people who will work with us and force the Chinese to secure a very long and mountainous border. Then if the Saudis don’t like it? Let them sell their oil to China and be on their squad - now China secures their own Oil source and that takes a shit ton of pressure off the Vietnamese and everyone else in the area, with the Iranians still having the Strait of Hormuz as insurance. Peace can be had.
Our biggest rival has triple our population and is rapidly catching up in capability - and any armchair historian knows that the Soviets overwhelmed the Nazis despite their sophistication.
(1) https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-produc...
Saying that you have enough production (with a negative million plus barrels a day) and then saying that peace needs to be made with Iran to protect supply from going to China seems like an extremely risky strategy with very little potential of cutting off China.
The Germans made a series of unsophisticated decisions in the east that cost them when Hilter started to assert direct control over the army. Not really comparible. The number of tanks do.