Want to know what's up with Saudi Arabia?

Before I go on, I would like to apologize. I read a wonderful article last week, and I regret that I cannot find the link to post here. However, I will do my best to sum up the situation in Saudi Arabia and how dire it can be for the world. I will make these points brief:

1. The US has been weaning itself off of Saudi oil for a long time
2. The US has been one of the largest customers of the Iraqi oil-for-food program
3. The royal Saud family has been funding terrorism abroad as to insulate itself from terrorism at home
4. The royal Saud family rightfully fears terrorism in its own country because the Saudi public sees that the Saud family is rampant with corruption, and stealing the money from Saudi's
5. Saudi Arabia, I believe handles 25% of oil output.
6. Saudi's oil production is sickeningly vulnerable to attack, and if it is, its production- even though doesn't effect the US directly (since our weaning off of Saudi oil) will still affect world oil markets- sending up the price and demand through the roof.

As an aside, it is my firm belief that although I cannot directly say one way or the other that the US went to Iraq for oil, I would nearly definitely say that the invasion of Iraq was an aide for the US to get out of Saudi Arabia ... and move into Iraq.

Your facts are incorrect.

Saudi Arabian oil production is not "sickeningly vulnerable to attack". No terrorist organisation currently has the capability to damage it's output in a major way. Strikes against foreign technical workers are about the only way that AlQaeda has of harming the industry.

The US has not been weaning itself off Saudi oil for a long time. It is still the largest consumer of Saudi oil. You will find that the biggest supplier of US oil for many decades has been Canada.

The US has not been the largest customer for the Oil for Food programme. I think you'll find that privilege goes to Russia, France and Iraq's neighbours.

The claim that the war was fought for oil is a tenuous one. Why do you think that there is a shortage of oil? If the US is controlling Iraqi oil then don't you think that it would be supplying itself and flooding the market to counter the OPEC price rise? Any price in oil is going to be politically damaging to the Bush regime. It's absolute nonsense to claim that the US government wouldn't use Iraqi oil to counter this if the war was all about possession of oil reserves.

The reason for this shortage is that Iraq is no longer supplying it's neighbours and French and Russian interests through the corrupt Oil for Food program. The oil that it used to clandestinely export is now being used for it's own rebuilding. The countries who used to feed themselves from this illegal oil are now finding that they have to turn to the legitimate market which is now finding that it has problems supplying this increase in demand without the input that Iraqi exports used to supply.

I'm no lover of the Saudi regime. I find it's leaders to be crude, tasteless and offensive, but you've come up with a theory that doesn't bear close scrutiny. The US pulled out of Saudi Arabia because of Islamic public opinion - not because it wanted Iraqi oil. If you noticed, the US stated that they would pull out of Saudi Arabia in April 2003. The invasion of Iraq was already underway by then. Continued American presence would have created a major problem for the Saudi authorities.