Radical Sheiks
Feith, DouglasJ.
"Radical Sheiks" Members elected to Congress in the 1970s tend to devote more attention to serving their constituents, both through congressional services and largely political trips home." Trips home are both...
...preaches that the United States must pacify, not confront, the oil states...
...The oil states view U.S...
...Statements like these reflect the deference U.S...
...base in Saudi Arabia, that "such a highly visible American presence would provoke Arab protests and hazard the existing Saudi government" (Washington Post), and the Saudis' belief that "as long as there is little progress toward solution of the Palestinian question, an intimate and open association with the United States can be seen as anti-Arab and thus dangerous" (Washington Post...
...The oil states know that the United States is militarily stronger than they...
...Since the violation of Afghanistan, the Carter administration talks as if it grasps the Soviet threat to this interest and will arrange to defy it...
...The Saudis in particular are skillfull at presenting their case, play" This sentiment is of a piece with the administration's decision in January to pressure Jerusalem more vigorously for even greater Israeli THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 1! mg on themes of love and dread, marshaling arguments that lead insistently to the conclusion that Americans should fear Saudi displeasure, actively seek Saudi favor, and conscientiously avert confrontations with Riyadh...
...In the words of the Washington Post (January 17, 1980): "The Carter Administration unmistakably signaled Israel of its intention to push harder and faster for progress in the West Bank and Gaza Strip autonomy negotiations, in the apparent belief that a breakthrough would make it easier for both the United States and Israel to play a more assertive role in stabilizing the region...
...Days after proclaiming his commitment to use force to defend U.S...
...Washington has taken its eye off the ball...
...No external affairs, such as the negotiations on the West Bank, can realistically be expected to influence the oil regimes' commitment to keeping U.S...
...The administration fails to realize that the oil-producing states are not about to be enticed into accepting U.S...
...There would probably be little disagreement," Tahtinen writes, "that a friendly and cooperative Saudi Arabia is crucial to the United States and the remainder of the western world...
...By acting responsively legislators demean the function of representation, implying that a congressman is chiefly a messenger or an ombudsman...
...Furthermore, by improving America's conventional military position, such bases would decrease the risk of nuclear war by minimizing our reliance on nuclear force to deter a Soviet attack...
...In fact, it was the leading "moderate," Saudi Arabia, that devised the notorious retroactive price hike...
...But if we are not willing to make good on that promise, we are forfeiting our interests in advance...
...Chief among these "vital interests" is our access to affordable Persian Gulf oil...
...officials might disfavor the idea, it would not exactly be the end of the world if these regimes changed hands...
...They were, in fact, worried about the extreme suspicions many American patriots habored for all but the most local of governments...
...interests effectively, but hampers our efforts to secure these interests from the Soviets...
...Nonetheless, the oil states in the Persian Gulf have emphatically condemned the idea...
...and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion...
...What really is our stake in wooing "moderate" oil regimes that, on the economic front, treat us just as the "radicals" do, and on the political front, exploit their reputations for moderation to extract costly diplomatic and strategic concessions from us...
...As long as there is this West Bank autonomy problem," Byrd stated, "our ability to cooperate with Arab countries in meeting the common danger of possible Soviet expansionism is hampered...
...Indeed, we should promote their stability and wellbeing only if by doing so we advance America's primary interests...
...Were Washington less categorical about the desirability of preserving their regimes, it would be they, not we, who strain to be accommodating, and they, not we, who shudder at the prospect of deteriorating relations between them and us...
...Israel, a militarily potent democracy, unwaveringly pro-American, has offered to assist but has been rebuffed...
...This assumption, in turn, requires one to assume that the Saudis are now doing the United States favors, but they are not...
...Our Founding Fathers," Gardner has also said, "presumed continuing vigilance on the part of citizens...
...Regional bases would help offset that advantage...
...Finally, by acting responsively they tend to ingratiate themselves with their constituents at the expense of the country's political institutions...
...And they recognize that playing the "Soviet card" in earnest would expose their feudal regimes to more peril than it would mitigate...
...Specifically, the administration might suggest what thus far has seemed unthinkable: that securing the oil fields from the Soviets is more important than the full contentment of the local regimes...
...Your representative," Burke said, "owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment...
...military presence in the Gulf region...
...W/estern press reports and the"scholarly literature" frequently follow Fahd's lead and portray the Saudis as America's blessing in burnoose...
...But it still shows no defiance toward the region's oil sheiks, though they continually threaten the same interest...
...Embassy in Teheran and the Red Army's coup in Kabul, to arrange for U.S...
...military facilities...
...A "tough" policy of this sort cannot possibly succeed, however, if the administration's broad strategies remain defensive and "untough...
...troops at a distance...
...t Al-Hawadith, January 11, 1980...
...they make no attempt to conceal this...
...The Carter administration has decided to respect these sensibilities by abandoning plans for a broadly based U.S...
...Again, Prince Fahd: "We are not only friends of the U.S...
...As the New York Times reported: "Administration officials said the United States would use bases there only as a last resort because it would antagonize the Arab world...
...He likewise labels the other Persian Gulf oil states "basically prowestern...
...On the average, congressmen go home to their districts 35 weekends a year...
...military power to hold the Soviets at bay, but they are content to keep their region more vulnerable to the Soviets than it has to be so long as this (1) allows them to maintain the credibility of their oil threats against their customers, and (2) keeps us from enhancing our bargaining power with them through the stationing of U.S...
...There is hardly a reference to Saudi Arabia in print nowadays "risks for peace...
...Proximity to the Gulf affords the Soviets, especially since Afghanistan, an invaluable military advantage, the usefulness of which is increased by America's inadequate " l i f t " capability...
...Among U.S...
...No attempts appear to have been made to pressure the oil sheiks on this matter...
...There are many states like the United States which are ready to furnish the kingdom with everything it wants...
...Though U.S...
...Trips home are both expensive and timeconsuming...
...We can easily replace the Americans...
...efforts to please the oil-producing countries...
...F] THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 13...
...Douglas J. Feith RADICAL SHEIKS What stake have we in wooing "moderate" oil regimes that exploit us economically and politically ? President Carter has assured the country that he will defend the "vital interests" of the United States in the Persian Gulf region "by any means necessary, including military force...
...At times, administration officials have made themselves look ludicrous trying to defuse resentment against the Saudis with suggestions like the following, which appeared in the Washington Post: "Saudi Arabia is now favorably disposed to U.S...
...What is needed is for Washington to hint--for example, through an Assistant Secretary of State at a Senate hearing--that under certain circumstances the United States may become indifferent to the fate of the sheiks' regimes...
...From among the Gulf states, only Oman, not an OPEC power, remains a candidate for U.S...
...interest in oil from the Persian Gulf...
...military bases in the Persian Gulf region...
...military presence on the ground in their countries would undermine whatever credibility this threat has and would, thereby, reduce their bargaining power...
...By acting responsively, moreover, legislators rarely leave themselves enough time to think about the issues they are grappling with...
...policy, which favors the survival of their regimes and stability in the region, represents insurance against those dangers...
...who pretend to be champions for the right and the capacity of the people to choose their own rulers, yet maintain that they will prefer those only who will immediately and infallibly betray the trust committed to them...
...goal is primary and act accordingly...
...The United States has no interest in the s~abilit3 or the well-being of the Persian Gulf autocracies as such...
...Abu Dhabi's newspaper, A/FP'ahda, attacked Washington's plans and urged Arabs to "confront any attempt to establish the kind of military presence in the area which will only shake the independence of our nations and threaten the stability and security of the area...
...Since thoughtful practitioners of intimidation appreciate the usefulness of arranging for their victims to save face, the Saudis offer affirmative reasons why the United States should strive to satisfy their desires...
...There is no reason, however, why they cannot be made to fear American displeasure at least as much as America now fears their displeasure...
...bases, although they could conceivably be pressured to do so...
...The Saudis, in the words of the New York Times, "have been outspoken in in...
...Saudi Prince Fahd stated, "The major powers have their own interests . . . . When ties exist between a major power whose population is "200 million and a small power whose population is no more than one million, the possibility of the latter being overrun by force of arms, as has happened in Afghanistan, becomes a possibility that must be taken into consideration...
...Explaining this conclusion, the President said, "I don't think it would be accurate for me to claim that at this time, or in the future, we expect to have enough military strength and enough military presence there to defend the region unilaterally...
...After all, lack of access, unlikely as this prospect may be, could cause economic dislocations with calamitous consequences...
...sisting that they will not permit the United States to build new bases or military instaUations on their soil...
...The strategic complexities of the West Bank issue--for instance, how concessions by Jerusalem would affect Israeli security, or how weakening Israel's military posture would damage America's military position in the region--shrink to trifles, in Byrd's view, when contrasted with America's overriding goal: persuading the oil states to allow us to defend U.S...
...military facilities cannot be resolved without one side or the other losing something of fundamental importance...
...The most potent of the arguments are those that aim to intimidate, as when Saudi Prince Fahd warns: '.'We are not compelled to be friends with the Americans...
...fields against the Soviets--conflicts with the desires of the oil-producing regimes, we should recognize which U.S...
...There is much to recommend the establishment of such bases...
...After all, the "radical" oil states, such as Iraq and Libya, sell us oil just as the "moderates" do, and the "moderates" charge the same prices as the "radicals...
...bases "would isolate pro-Western governments and draw fire from radical Arab countries" (New York Times), the concern, regarding a possible U.S...
...For at least the short run (that is, the period in which economic cataclysms occur, governments are overthrown, wars are fought), Persian Gulf oil will remain a vital interest of the United States...
...Although this is accurate only insofar as the lack of general disagreement is concerned, Tahtinen advocates solicitude toward the Saudis: "Given the importance of maintaining a friendly regime in Saudi Arabia, it is essential to consider what the United States should do to support Riyadh's goals, as well as the options the Saudis might exercise in the absence of adequate American cooperation...
...There is no need for the United States to threaten military invasion or even to threaten to facilitate the toppling of these regimes by others...
...The Saudis produce and price oil strictly in accordance with the principles of profit maximization and are in no position to deviate significantly from these principles without doing themselves grave economic harm, and perhaps undoing themselves politically to boot...
...troops...
...interests in the Middle East, President Carter told a press gathering that the United States will not be able to defend these interests after all without the consent of the local oil states...
...Such vigilance, the Founders thought, would make deliberation impossible, for men would be accused of betraying the public trust if they changed their views on any matter...
...They do rely on U.S...
...Fear and favor, as it were, govern U.S...
...economy by cutting off o i l . ' " A U.S...
...Many congressmen, then, are responsive, but are they acting as national legislators when they spend so much time soliciting the views of their constituents...
...administration but also regard ourselves as friends of the American people and the American press too...
...Their bargaining power derives ultimately from the threat (albeit, to those who understand the economics of the matter, not a very credible threat) to do violence to the U.S...
...Said one official: 'The obvious is obvious.' " 12 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 Administration officials explain the oil states' antagonism in various ways, among them, the "current controversy over the Saudis' Westernization program" (New York Times), the fear that U.S...
...people is a special one and deserves to be respected and safeguarded...
...So long as Washington does not threaten interests of these regimes as valuable to them as the interest that would be undermined by Washington's defense plans, cooperation will remain out of the question, and the oil fields of the Persian Gulf will remain excessively vulnerable to the Soviets...
...officials pay the oil states, a deference encouraged, naturally, by the oil states themselves...
...that does not characterize it as either "moderate" or "prowestern...
...What the Founding Fathers wanted was a new kind of patriotism, a patriotism that abjured motive-hunting, a patriotism that recognized the need for accommodating the views of the numerous special interests that would inevitably arise in an extended republic, a patriotism that acknowledged the importance of an elite corps of national legislators whose "enlightened views and virtuous sentiments" would render them "superior...to schemes of injustice...
...With all the talk of the oil states' antiSoviet inclinations, their "moderate" oil policies, and the critical importance of keeping them "cooperative," it has become common to view the security and friendship of the sheiks' regimes as a fundamental national interest of the United States...
...When such an interest--for example, defending the oil :[: American Enterprise Institute, 1978...
...The conflict between the United States and the oil sheiks over U.S...
...Can such preaching be squared with President Carter's new line on Soviet expansionism and the U.S...
...This is not, however, the Carter administration's approach as it attempts, in the aftermath of the takeover of the U.S...
...It would be fruitless to face down the oil states were we not willing, for example, to make good the promise to bar, "by any means necessary," Soviet encroachments into the U.S...
...Our interest in the Persian Gulf region is oil (that is, access to an affordable supply thereof...
...There are many doors wide open to us, be it on the military, technological or economic level...
...The Carter administration acts as if it is without power to deal forcefully, let alone forcibly, with the oil states...
...policymakers, the ascendant school Douglas J. Feith is General Counsel to the Center for International Security...
...They understand that U.S...
...This is illustrated clearly in a study by Dale R. Tahtinen entitled National Security Challenges to Saudi Arabia.~ Tahtinen describes the Saudis as "moderate," "friendly," "stable," "prowestern," and, specifically, "pro-American...
...The notorious oil weapon is properly perceived as a bar of soap carved to resemble a gun...
...vital interests...
...The oil states are anti-Soviet, hut this does not make them pro-Western...
...9 " Our fear of the Saudis' reducing oil production, raising oil prices, altering petro-dollar disposition policies, or perhaps even cutting offthe flow ofoil to America altogether is justified only if one assumes that Riyadh, at relatively small cost to itself, co!aid do substantial harm to the United States...
...military strength in the region as a danger to them...
...The Safidi Arabian Kingdom's relationship with the U.S...
...sphere of influence in the Gulf region...
...They presumed no such thing...
...President and the U.S...
...They appreciate that their regimes face dangers from the Soviets, domestic subversives, and aggressive neighbors...
...in 1978 House members spent $3.1 million in public funds for such trips...
...John Gardner has said that a citizen's movement "should want the freely elected representatives of the people to represent them wisely and well," but Common Cause's idea of republican government reduces legislators to men who are rigid when they should be flexible and servile when they should be proud, legislators who lack the courage to say that they will vote on matters not by taking opinion polls of their constituents but as they see fit, beholden only to their judgment and conscience...
...Kenya, over 1,700 miles from the Gulf, is likely to lend us a hand, as are Somalia and Egypt, both renowned for their flip-flops in and out of the Soviet camp...
...Whatever we think of the particular changes Common Cause has advocated, its general rhetoric and its specific understanding of representation recall the patriotism that Publius most feared, the patriotism proclaimed by "men of little faith" in representative government-men, as Publius says in Federalist 57, "who profess the most flaming zeal for republican government, yet boldly impeach the fundamental principle of it...
...Catering to the region's oil-producing countries, it turns out, not only fosters their ability to threaten U.S...
...policy in the Persian Gulf...
...facilities in the region although it is not going to advertise the idea and may even criticize it occasionally" (my italics...
...But that is not our fundamental interest...
...In a similar vein, on the same day Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd suggested that the Soviets' move into Afghanistan calls for even more determined U.S...
...Sometimes your enemy's enemy is not your friend...
...The defense of the Gulf is the concern of its peoples and they reject any interference in their affairs," Kuwait's minister of state for foreign affairs told a Kuwaiti newspaper...
...Setting an example, Byrd urged Israel to mollify the Arabs with concessions on the West Bank...
Vol. 13 • April 1980 • No. 4
