The Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow

The Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow offers his views on U.S. relations with the Saudis in this piece from National Review Online. Bandow believes that, while “Washington may not be able to force Saudi Arabia to accept political or religous freedom, it can insist that Riyadh cooperate to turn off the financial spigot for terrorists. And the U.S. must do so even if it means loosening the two governments’ friendly embrace.” Bandow argues that fear of losing Saudi bases should not be a concern because we should withdraw our troops from the Kingdom in any case once the situation in Iraq is resolved. Bandow then devotes most of his piece to arguing that, as an economic matter, our need for oil is not a reason for treading lightly with the Saudis either. Bandow does not think we should treat the Saudis as enemies. Rather we “simply should reorder our priorities, accepting a cooling of the relationship if that is the only way to halt terrorist funding.”