America’s Biggest Gold Mine Turned Sour
Tags: America, Money, Politics, War, Middle East

America set out on a mission to strike gold… and they did. Just off the Persian Golf, in what is now known as Dhahran, American’s found the first commercial quantity of oil in Saudi Arabia (home to some of the most holiest sights of Islam). This was great for both countries. American’s got their oil (and no shortage of it), while the Saudi’s became rich and supplied with protection and new found connections with the United States.

Building a military base around the oil sight, Saudi’s became very concerned with their own government and the relationship it had with American’s. This base was built on the terms that no American flag should touch the soil, instead the flag’s were hung on plaques on the side’s of buildings. Meanwhile the citizen’s of Saudi Arabia were becoming so concerned, so was the rest of the Middle East.

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

The Middle East’s new found country, Israel, needed help from the American military, due to Israel creating tension with other countries in the Middle East. America set out to help Israel, supplying them with money, weapons and support in what is now known as the Yom Kippur War. This saw America’s shortage of oil in 1973 (and to anyone else who supplied any type of aid to Israel at this time).

All the while this was happening, a man by the name of Osama Bin Laden, travelled to Afghanistan in attempts to stop the Soviet Union from invading. It is also worth noting that Osama provided much more background than many of us know. Osama Bin-Laden, child to Mohammad Bin-Laden, was born into a very wealthy family… the family that owned the oil company in Saudi Arabia (by the name of Abrusto Energy). Osama worked close with rebel fighters in Afghanistan, such as Mujahideen, bringing money, construction gear and dedication. However, this is not the only story to tell. While America was helping Israel, they also funded Afghanistan with money and weapons to fight against the Soviet Union. Together, they won, preventing the Soviet Union from invading Afghanistan.

Photo by Specna Arms on Unsplash

Saudi Arabia and the United States came back together to continue the oil production. However, Osama Bin Laden grew increasingly concerned with the government of Saudi Arabia. A neighbouring country, Iraq, began to invade kuwait. This grew concerns in Saudi Arabia’s government in fear of invading of their own country soon after. With this, Osama Bin Laden offered to help the government take back kuwait and push back the Iraq military. This seemed preposterous to the Saudi government, with them quote on quote telling Osama that ‘there are no caves in Kuwait’ (in reference to Osama’s previous war in Afghanistan and how he fought to protect against the Soviet Union invading).

Osama’s great dedication towards his own ideologies against American’s being on such sacred ground bought around the provoking of his own passport and rejection from his own government. In turn, this may seem very questionable, for the Saudi government to let American’s built military bases on their own land and to then try to hush their own citizens who have growing concerns about what is happening. However, the Saudi’s were growing very very rich from American’s doing what they were doing.

Photo by Yasmine Arfaoui on Unsplash

From here Osama Bin Laden created and funded Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. From Somalia, Osama conducted many attacks against America and other big countries attempting to come into Saudi Arabia. This resulted in one of the most known terrorist attacks on American soil. The day of 9/11. 2,977 people died as a result of 19 hijackers on kamikaze missions. This later on resulted in the Global War on Terrorism. This was launched in response to the 9/11 attacks by the United States military.

As of 2018, the United States has only imported 9.1% of it’s annual oil import from Saudi Arabia. This is a major drop from 11.9% in previous years. Although Saudi Arabia remains the second largest oil production country, the US is taking less oil each year.

In March of 2020 (yes, the same time most of us went into lockdown due to the Coronavirus), the Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price war began. The economic war was in response to Russia’s refusal to slow oil production in order to keep oil prices at a moderate level. This has resulted in the drop of oil prices since the spring of 2020, with US oil prices falling 34%, crude oil falling by 26% and Brent oil falling by 24%. This is on top of the demand shortage of oil in the waking of COVID-19, which saw oil prices already down by 30% at the beginning of 2020. How’s that for stuff you missing in the news during a global pandemic?!

It is fair to say that America’s dwelling in the Middle East has resulted in much more than the gold mine they bargained for, whether it be the war between Al-Qaeda, America’s oil shortages or the Global War On Terrorism.

Thank you for reading! I would like to thank Johnny Harris on YouTube (link is below) for helping me write this, despite him not even knowing I exist! Follow for more interesting stories, opinions and the daily dose of education!