Remember how President Bush begged the Saudis to pump more oil, and they said, wellll, maybe 300,000 barrels more? Were you wondering what we offered in return?
According to this White House fact sheet dated May 16th, the US is committing to
pave the way for Saudi Arabia's access to safe, reliable fuel sources for energy reactors and demonstrate Saudi leadership as a positive non-proliferation model for the region.
In other words, we'll be selling them nuclear fuel.
Does that seem like a good idea?
Does it seem like something that you and I should be out there clamoring against?
Does it seem like something that we should demand that John McCain either "denounce and reject" or own up to?
Saudi Arabia is one of the last nations on the planet to need nuclear power. They are a country of very people people afloat on a sea of oil.
Saudi Arabia is also a hotbed of Islamic radicalism, institutionalized in its government. While technically a US ally, they do not share our values one bit. Their form of Islam is the Wahhabi sect that makes the most extreme Shi'ite cleric in Iraq look like Hugh Hefner. This is, of course, the country that provided us with the vast majority of the 9/11 hijackers, and Osama Bin Laden himself.
It is, finally, a repressive monarchy, one of the least stable forms of government known to man. While prospects of a revolution in Saudi Arabia seem slim at the moment, they also seemed slim in Iran under the Shah, until the situation deteriorated and he fell. Can anyone promise me the Saudi Royal Family will still be in power in 10 years?
These are the guys we want to encourage to build nuclear reactors?
Foreign policy under the Bushies has consistently pursued short term benefits at long term cost. In the nuclear field alone, we cozied up to General Musharraf of Pakistan in spite of his tolerance of the A. Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network. We bluster at North Korea without stopping them from building several nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile we refuse to raise CAFE standards on our cars, guaranteeing we'll stay desperate for Mideast oil.
What is to be done?
- Democrats need to strongly criticize any policy that puts more nuclear capability in the hands of our so-called Saudi allies.
- John McCain needs to be pressed to either support or reject the White House's promise to sell nuclear fuel to Saudi Arabia. If he supports it, he should be criticized for putting America in danger. If he rejects it, he should be pressed to use his position in the Senate to stop sales of nuclear fuel to Saudi Arabia.
The one remaining area of public policy where the Republicans still have a slim edge is in their perceived ability to protect the US from terrorism. Bush has, in fact, been a jihadis wet dream. But Republican bluster has convinced a lot of voters who believe that tough talk equals effective action. If we can get out ahead on this point, and educate the American people to the danger that Bush is putting all of us in, it will leave John McCain with no advantages at all in the upcoming election.