She would rather he die pure than be tainted by western infidels.

So again, my answer is to take the money away. Find an alternative to oil and the have no funding.

We'd give school supplies to villages, and when we left the Talban would come through and take them and burn them.

Rather than make war, just make them totally IRRELEVANT

Find an alternative to *Arab* oil, you mean.

Or Islamic oil, even.

Yes. An alternative that will keep even China and India from buying Arab oil

Make oil irrelevant

This convo reminded me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bFs6ZiynSU

Economically render the middle east irrelevant

We'd guard engineers while they were building water pipes to give villages clean water, and when we were done they'd blow it up.

I get that, Atkins

Making the Middle East irrelevant is a far different proposition than making oil irrelevant.

Oh? To make them irrelevant we have to stop throwing money at them.

We could immediately start importing Russian oil instead of Saudi oil.

Oil will always be relevant.

How do we keep India and China and everyone else from buying Arab oil as long as oil is a thing?

It's not just for fuel. Plastics, fertilizer, lubricants, chemical feedstock.

Oh, for stuff like that we can get enough oil for that from non-Arab sources

it doesn't work that way. we might choose to do so, but that makes arab oil cheaper for others.

Petroleum is an input of just about everything.

@DrYuriMom Trump is trying to do that. In the current trade talks (trade war) the Item is that PRC should reduce Iranian oil imports and buy from the USA instead

I don't believe there is enough oil produced in the world to cover all the demand without the Gulf

We need to change the demand equation, and not just for the US

True

Trump is doing the same thing with the EU coal market, too.

And China.

Okay, let's back up a moment

Is there any disagreement that sending vast sums of money to the Gulf states simply ends up funding hate back at us?

Not from me

I think Saudi imports are only like 10% of US oil demand. That's basically marginal demand.

Not just money from us, but money from Japan, China, India, Europe, and south africa

Oil is a world market after all and money is money

Whoever is throwing money at the Gulf States it comes back to us as hate. That's why Trump is trying to keep everyone from trading with Iran and not just the US.

Sounds like Trump is already on the right track by negotiating trade deals that replace Arab oil with US oil.

Can the US replace Arab oil? Arab oil is cheap to get out. They can always undercut us.

As long as oil is a thing, money will flow to the Gulf...unless we can get the whole world to embargo them and actually respect the embargo

I can't imagine China paying us more for oil when they can get it cheaper from Kuwait and Qutar

We could bar the US oil services industry from operating in the Middle East. That would have them riding camels again really quick.

You're so confident that China and Europe and Russian experts wouldn;t fill the gap?

If the Saudi-Iranian conflict goes hot in the gulf, American oil will be pretty damned cheap in comparison.