The horrific developments of September 11th forever changed the energy policy of this administration. The discovery that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers had originated from Saudi Arabia was cause for fear and disappointment within the White House. Could the Saudi’s, our long time friends and business partners, be not only tolerating Islamic fanaticism, but more grievously, were the Saudis financial

September 11th also led many in the White House to wonder if Saudi Arabia, a relatively moderate OPEC member, was vulnerable to the sort of Islamic revolution that felled the Shah of Iran, preparing the way for the worse or two evils, the Ayatollah Khomeini. Should the ruling Saudi family be overthrown, and oil supplies to the West disrupted, the resulting economic shock waves would make the oil crisis of the 1970’s look like a hiccup. This dark scenario forced The Bush administration to look elsewhere for oil resources in order to lessen the reliance on Saudi Arabia. Under the economic sanctions set against Iraq after the first Gulf War, oil production was estimated to be far under its possible capacity of five million barrels per day. Though not as noble a position freeing Iraq and the world from a despot, I believe it was apparent to the Administration that they could not rely on any oil agreement made with a rogue state such as Iraq, nor could the United States trust an unpredictable Saddam Hussein to stand by any good faith contract. The only reasonable solution to this problem of unfettered access to Iraqi oil was simple, regime change.

Those in the administration who argue that

Some topics in this essay:
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