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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (51867)	10/14/2002 2:07:05 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

Soccer Moms won't like this one...America must wean itself off Saudi oil By Conrad Burns Published: October 11 2002 5:00 \| Last Updated: October 11 2002 5:00 news.ft.com For the sake of peace and economic freedom the US must rethink where it buys its oil. It is usually said that the US cannot reduce its dependence on Saudi Arabia. Yet every time we buy a barrel of oil from the kingdom we are indirectly financing global terrorism. There is no one birthplace for terrorism, but there are places where extreme ideologies flourish. In Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi clerics have a stranglehold on freedom. The institutions of church and state are one entity. Women live as third-class citizens. Textbooks teach hatred and disdain for the US. Young men genuflect to jihad as they are indoctrinated into a bastardised religion of terror. The result is the absence of democracy. And, of course, 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers - and their mastermind, Osama bin Laden - hailed from the kingdom. The US imports about a quarter of its oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. As long as we buy oil from regimes that deny democracy and freedom, America's national security is at risk, our foreign policy is shackled, and our diplomatic credibility in the Middle East undermined. The US must cut loose from nations that preach hatred at their pulpits. Will we continue to kowtow to the caliphs of a cartel or liberate ourselves from a crippling dependency on anti-Western regimes? It is time for America to find new sources of energy. Russia and the independent states of the former Soviet Union, from which we import virtually no oil, are America's best hope. Reserves of up to 33bn barrels have been found in the Caspian sea. Estimates indicate another 233bn barrels. Such a massive amount of oil would constitute a quarter of the world's proven reserves. Russia boasts even higher reserves. The US has an historic opportunity to share new technologies and modern management with our Russian ally. President Vladimir Putin has already taken great steps with land, tax and market reforms. Russia must now work to eradicate organised crime and put an end to endemic corruption. It must finalise banking reforms while improving investment regulations. And transparent and impartial courts backed by the national government must enforce laws and contracts. A better climate for investment will open the way to expanded gas and oil production in eastern Siberia and the Russian far east and help to the modernise the country's port and transportation infrastructure. The economic future of the Caspian states hinges on how much oil they can pump on to the world market. Recently, construction began on the first pipeline in the region - from Azerbaijan to Turkey - which could bring 1m barrels of crude a day to western markets. I endorse the idea of a second pipeline in the region to bring Khazakstani oil to the world market. As Winston Churchill said on the eve of the second world war, "safety and certainty in oil lie in variety and variety alone". The US must seek greater diversity in its oil supply. Closer partnership with Russia and the Caspian states is the way forward. A stable Russia with close economic ties to the US is in the strategic interests of both our nations. Global peace is imperilled so long as Saudi Arabia emanates fanaticism and the US signs billion-dollar cheques to tyrannical regimes. Economic stability is threatened so long as the Saudis wield influence over the production capacity of other nations. Whether the Saudis wish to embrace modernity, democracy and human rights is for them to determine. But we can make the US less dependent on a state that yawns at change. Let us put an end to our passive acceptance of cartel control over world oil production. The writer is a Republican member of the US senate for Montana