Opinion

Why the U.S. Going to War for Saudi Arabia would be a Disaster

By Reporter Orlando Angelone

(Duke's Dispatch) - On September 14, 2019, a drone attack was conducted on two oil fields in Saudi Arabia. This attack resulted in zero casualties, but slowed the production of oil in the country, bringing prices down in what was a very concerning week for those in the business of oil futures.

This caused major backlash as many in both the Saudi Arabian and U.S. Governments started to point fingers at the bête noire of the Middle East, Iran. This only adds to the multitude of disputes and disagreements between Iran and the United States. Along with the ongoing conflict over Iranian nuclear capability, and different spats of diplomatic outrage in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Adding further fuel to the fire is Great Britain, who is now willing to confirm that Iran was behind the attack with no other evidence than, "Well, it seems like a thing they would do." This is par for the course for the former members of the Coalition of the Willing, who invaded Iraq to rid Sadam Hussein of his Weapons of Mass Destruction. They, along with the United States and some of its other allies, will do anything in their power to go to war with countries that they do not like. It does not matter if they have to make up lies about the country, as in Iraq, where there were no W.M.D.'s, or the famed Gulf of Tonkin incident. We love going to war over false pretenses.

Now by no means is Iran a benevolent nation, and by no means are they incapable of doing such an attack. For example, they are known to fund terrorist groups all around the Middle East. But, there is no evidence that even begins to prove Iran conducted or even sponsored the attack.

So with no evidence, and no real reason to believe Iran did it, The United States has announced that we will be sending troops to Saudi Arabia in an effort to "bolster their defences.” This is not only fiscally wrong but, more importantly, it is morally bunk.

On the fiscal side of the coin, the United States Military Budget is around 700 billion dollars a year. This is in and of itself much too high, and starting another war in the Middle East, which is sure to be a bigger quagmire than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be ridiculous. The military actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria have cost 5.6 trillion dollars since 2001. Instead of paying for never ending war with that money, we could have invested it into paying off 22 percent of our national debt. And even if we didn't want to do something totally reasonable such as that, we could invest into Social Security, or a multitude of other programs. But no, we are in fact gearing up to spend trillions more.

But more important than the fiscal aspects are the moral aspects of a possible war. Thousands of American Soldiers would presumably die, as would a high amount of Iranian soldiers. And even more than that, the amount of civilian casualties would be catastrophic. 460,000 civilians died in the Iraq War, and with Iran's considerably larger war capacity and civilian population it could only be terrible for all.

And speaking of terrible, terrorist organizations. Every time a war is fought in the Middle East, it seems like a brand new terrible organization is founded. Out of the Russians ill fated venture into Afghanistan came Al Qaeda and the Taliban, out of the United States' war in Iraq came the Islamic State, and out of the U.S. funded coup against the democratically elected government of Iran came the Shah, who we liked, even though he was a murderous psychopath, because he was ours. But in the Overthrow of the Shah came the current Iranian Government we so madly want to go to war with. Middle Eastern war leads to nothing but endless death and destruction, even once we pack up our stars and stripes and leave, if we ever do.

In all of this there is something that I extremely difficult to understand in the first place, which is why we would be going to war for Saudi Arabia. According to the Trump Administration, the Saudi Arabian Government sees this attack as "their 9/11." This is rich, considering that over 2,000 people died during that infamous day, and zero died in the oil field attack. And what's more, 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi and had significant connections to the Saudi Arabian Government. Let us also not forget that in October of 2018, the Saudi Arabian Government had Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi assassinated in Istanbul. Khashoggi was a permanent resident of the United States, yet the Saudis killed him and dismembered him with a bone saw. It is graphic, but we should never forget it. Saudi Arabia is not our friend. They just take our money, and we take theirs.

So one is left to wonder why we would send troops to help those who would want to hurt us. It is because of what I previously stated. We receive massive amounts of money from the Saudi Government in military contracts, and in the end, to many in our "benevolent" government, money is a more important asset than the citizen, or the soldier, or the resident.

So with that is the final nail in the coffin of any good reason to enter into another Middle Eastern War. To paraphrase Vizzini from the "Princess Bride", "[We] fell victim to one of the classic blunders!... never get involved in a land war in Asia!" But only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!"