Accolades to you - wow - just wow. You were somehow able to take even this and rationalize it to the extent that I get why Biden did this now. You have a great skill of defending Biden through and through. I commend you. I know I've said it before - but I mean it very seriously: You should be Biden's Press Secretary. You really know how to defend him and rationalize what he does no matter what, and you do it so well that (I think) most reasonable people feel compelled to agree with you. It is a great skill. You could've taken the easy way out and just criticized Biden like all the rest of us have, but instead you've written a long, well-reasoned, logical post that really makes what Biden did sound reasonable and the best option.
kiss Biden's ass defend Biden no matter what, as if Biden will give him a job if he keeps at it. He claims that somehow Saudi Arabia is far better than Iran and suggests they aren't on Russia's side (Lavrov was literally in Riyadh today). The difference between Saudi Arabia and Iran is the former values money ahead of Islamic fundamentalism, while the latter values Islamic fundamentalism ahead of money. You wouldn't even need American oil execs in Tehran - there are existing brokers and intermediaries to do that. Actually, you wouldn't even need to bring a single drop of oil into the US from Iran to alleviate the current situation.
Please tell me how "letting Putin win" is worse than letting MBS win. If that's how we're defining the stakes, Putin has already won.
Interesting. You might be right that Iran > Saudi Arabia. I'm no Middle East expert. However, he did bring up anti-American sentiment all over Iran following Soleimani's assassination. It might be very risky to go to Iran to get oil? Again, I don't know, and both of you guys know better than I. All I know that neither option is good at all. I just don't know which is worse. I believed GMac but what you said makes sense to me too.
Iran is definitely not a better ugly friend than Saudi Arabia.
First of all, Iran f---ing hates our guts and will never be our friend. Saudi Arabia may murder journalists but at least they don't chant "Death To America" during their Friday prayer service every week.
Second of all, Iran has us over the barrel already because Trump dismantled the JCPOA. Iran is now making a nuclear weapon to destroy Israel, and we're in an incredibly weak negotiating position because we already reneged on the deal once. We're already having to play really nice with them to avoid a potential Israel-Iran nuclear exchange. Having to beg them for oil as well will really undermine our position.
Thirdly, Iran is absolutely one of Russia's key allies. Thanks to western sanctions, Iran does most of its trade with Russia. Iran buys most of its weapons from Russia. Iran and Russia are on the same side in every middle eastern conflict Iran is involved in. Russia also shares intelligence with Iran. None of this is true of Saudi Arabia. Santander casually implied that both Saudi Arabia and Iran are equally friendly with Russia because "Lavrov was in Riyadh" but of course this is just a lie. Saudi Arabia has been a military partner of the United States ever since the Gulf War and we have American bases there.
Moreover, there's an implicit agreement between America and Saudi Arabia that if Iran ever gets a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia will be protected by the American nuclear threat. Because Iran and Saudi Arabia are mortal enemies and Iran would absolutely love to obliterate Saudi Arabia just as soon as it's finished with Israel. That's just another reason why it's so bizarre to even consider the notion of "flipping" from Saudi Arabia to Iran as a regional partner.
Imagine actually believing this.
