Gasoline Really Isn’t the Bargain of the Century
As you look through the photos in this article “Nearly All of Yemen Demonstrates Against 4 Full Years of US-Saudi Attacks” (of which the one to the left is an example), consider that all the misery you’re looking at is one of the byproducts of oil in our civilization.
Electric transportation will reduce Saudi Arabia to near-complete irrelevance, taking along with it the kingdom’s U.S.-backed evil. Can’t happen soon enough.
The United States can cease committing atrocities, but only when that’s no longer in the financial interests of its uber-rich.
Craig,
The civil war in Yemen, like all civil wars is both brutal and cruel.
The war has nothing to do with oil! What was a local conflict has been exacerbated by becoming part of the ongoing undeclared war-by-proxy between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Like most civil wars, the origins of the conflict are obscure and ancient. Both sides are fighting for control out from the age old rivalry between differing tribes.
As is expected, backers of the different factions claim the other side are the bad guys, while reporters and other meddlers try to infuse all sorts of different agenda into an already confusing conflict.
Every nation in history has fallen victim to brutal and cruel civil wars. Neighbors and great powers often seize the opportunity to further their own agenda broadening the conflict. Sometimes, outside forces intervene in the vain hope of reconciling the warring parties and preventing indiscriminate slaughter.
I’ve met Randi Nord, and listened to her passionate views on the state of the Yemeni Civil War.
Randi is one of those passionate, committed young Westerners who view the terrible toll of war, particularly civil war, on non combatants with horror.
Her solution, is to condemn only the actions of Western or Saudi allies as reprehensible while ignoring the actions of Iran and its allies. Randi’s solution is more or less simple, the Saudi’s and the Yemeni allies should just stop fighting and let the Iranian backed forces prevail.
Randi is a Co-founder of Geopolitics Alert. In her own words she “covers U.S. imperialism in West Asia with a special focus on Yemen”, which sort of conveys her partisan view.
Unfortunately, modern wars are really no different from ancient wars. The civil population always takes a real hammering and savage deprivation. (Often taking part in the conflict as irregular forces or partisans).
The application of rules, or “war crimes” is impossible to enforce in such conflicts where the participants are not disciplined forces of o modern power, but irregulars driven by ancient blood lust.
Maybe the only way civil wars really end, is when enough of the population is killed, exhausted, and one side becomes completely crushed, can reconciliation and reconstruction begin.
Intervention, while seemingly humane, mostly just prolongs the conflict interminably while creating a diaspora of refugees.
Craig,
The Arabian Peninsula at large will actually be one of the most tragic humanitarian disasters in human history within 30-40 years.
The problem isn’t oil… though that will exacerbate the issue. The problem is the power of anti-science anti-education misogynist jingoist totalitarian sects (of various degrees) within the government and outside of the government throughout the peninsula.
Arabian oil is not inexhaustible. But they have no second-place trade product. I believe Saudi Arabia’s second largest export is still figs (a commodity that they expend FAR more money on than they receive from sales). The entire Arabian Peninsula is completely inhospitable, and could not even begin to supply the basic needs of even a quarter of its current population. The environment will only become more inhospitable as climate change happens, yet their population will double in the next 40-50 years.
It’s easy to condemn the Saudi family, but much of the vocal resistance against them is far more violent and anti-Western.
While the House of Saud clearly wastes money by the billions, the population of Saudi Arabia (and far moreso the incredibly poor population of Yemen), the Peninsula does not generate nearly enough economic activity to allow most of their populace to live well, and a combination of endless heat along with poverty will make people more prone to violence. It’s a mess, and moreso with every additional person that crowds into the place.
I’m not excusing them. There is no excuse for the type of violence that the powerful are inflicting upon the poor. But if the poor rose up, it would be just as violent, if not more so.
As the oil income continues to fall as a percentage of the economy in the Peninsula, it will become more desperate, and more violent. They don’t have the education or the infrastructure to innovate through a transition to a point where they can support 60-70 million people, and they will have 60-70 million people… which means a disaster the likes of which humanity has never seen is coming for that incredibly tragic peninsula.
This goes far beyond oil.
Craig,
Sadly, most of Glenn’s somewhat bleak predictions for future of the Arabian Peninsula may prove accurate.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia and several other Arab states, including the UAE, have been investing heavily in major development, particularly with agricultural projects.
Depicting Saudi Arabia as only growing some figs, is unfair. (Actually, Date production is far more prevalent).
The transformation of Saudi agricultural production has been truly astonishing. While oil, Gas and related activities still constitute 44% of the nation’s economy, agriculture has risen to nearly 31%.
The expenditure on building nationwide infrastructure has been eno0rmous. Rural roads, irrigation networks and storage,export facilities, agricultural research and training institutions, desalinization plants etc.
The3 result have been phenomenal. The Kingdom is now not only self-sufficient in all basic food requirements, but become a major exporter.
Saudi Arabia exports Meat, milk, eggs, wheat, dates, dairy products, eggs, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables and flowers to markets around the world.
Dates, once a staple of the Saudi diet, are now mainly grown for global humanitarian aid. Saudi farmers grow substantial amounts of other grains such as barley, sorghum and millet.
Some of the world’s most modern and largest dairy farms are to be found in the Kingdom. Saudi cows rate with Denmark in (1,800 gallons per cow).
Saudi Arabia exports wheat 34 countries. (including China and Russia).
Fruits and vegetables are also exported, including neighbors. watermelon, grapes, citrus fruits, onions, squash ,tomatoes, pineapples, paw-paws, bananas, mangoes and guavas.
The olive tree is indigenous to Saudi Arabia and has become a very valuable export crop produced by the Kingdoms 20 million trees,
Tourism remains an important source of revenue, especially as the two most holy pilgrimages in the Islamic world are in the Kingdom.
On top of all this, Saudi Arabia has learned to be a very astute investor abroad. The total value of Saudi Wealth Funds is estimated to be between 4 and 6 trillion dollars.
These funds along with the heavy investments in domestic renewable energy technology are calculated to replace declining oil revenue.
The future for the citizens of Saudi Arabia appears to be very well planned, although the nation is finding the war expensive.The US and UK are eagerly supplying the weapons, with Russia equally eagerly supplying Iran.
Thus the “Danse Macabre” continues as skeletons caper and the Reapers scythe harvests a crop of souls for Iblis, all very sad, but so good for the economies of the spectators.
Ok… Because I feel that this issue is important, I read a post from your troll – as it referenced my own.
Yes, Marco is correct that it’s dates, not figs (I haven’t looked at this in 15 years, and misremembered). But the idea that Saudi Arabia is “self sufficient”, is absolute nonsense.
Yes they export food products, in the same way that we export oil. But we are a NET oil importer, and they are a NET food importer. They net import roughly 70% of their food:
The food that they do produce is extremely heavily subsidized.
The Saudi Wealth fund is a good point, however. That will provide quite a bit of food and water for many years… but every year that they delay the investment into the critical education and infrastructure that they will need post-oil will shorten the time frame that they will be able to provide basic needs with that investment fund.