modest proposal for the mideast

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the Arab world without oil.

Would the U.S. government be propping up the aristo-klepto-theo-idiotocracy that is the House of Saud? Would Saddam have invaded Kuwait? and if he had would anybody in the U.S. have cared or even noticed? Would Al-Qaeda have had the money to send its boys to flight school? Would the United Nations have turned into the sewer of Israel bashing that it has become? Would the hideously self-destructive Palestinian movement have stayed alive as long as it has?

No. Without oil, the Arab world in the 21st century would have been little more than sub-Saharan Africa without the modern infrastructure, a quaint but cruel backwater of tents and camels, with many people but little influence, hardly different from the world depicted in the film Lawrence of Arabia.

Yes, there would probably still be religious fanatics, beheadings, shrouded women, wretched despots, and an unhealthy number of terrorists. But we would have little reason to engage with them, except to encourage them to join the modern world. Imagine how the last four decades would have been different -- no Six Day War, no Yom Kippur War, no oil embargo or stagflation in the 1970s, no Gulf War, no September 11.

Now open your eyes and return to reality.

Unfortunately, the Arab world does have oil, especially Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the rest of the Persian Gulf. And not only do they have lots of it, they also have about the lowest cost of exploration and extraction on the planet, so they can outprice and outcompete any alternative supplier. And as long as they are a big competitive force, they can hold the rest of the world over a barrel (no pun intended) and they can use their revenues to purchase weapons of mass destruction and/or export radical Islam and terrorism. So what can be done?

Sen. Conrad Burns gave an important speech on Thursday, on the future of American energy policy and foreign policy in the Middle East. Burns acknowledged that U.S. dependence on Persian Gulf oil is inadvertently financing anti-American hatred and terrorism. His proposals to alter the situation:

1. Use technology to develop alternatives to fossil fuel.

2. Use existing fossil fuels more efficiently

3. Look to alternative suppliers of fossil fuel, such as Canada, Russia, South America, Norway.

4. increase exploration in the U.S.

But some of these solutions will take years. Furthermore, since other sources of petroleum are more expensive than the Persian Gulf, that would not only raise our own cost, while still leaving the Saudis and their neighbors as a viable supplier to other more cost-sensitive economies. So I would like to propose an even more radical solution:

Imagine Saudi Arabia without oil. Visualize it. Make it happen: The United States and its allies should simply take possession of the Saudi oil fields.

If this sounds harsh and unfair, bear in mind that oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia only in 1933. Bear in mind also that the modern entity of Saudi Arabia only came into existence, by conquest, during the period 1905-1926, as part of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its aftermath, and with the help of the British. And does anybody really think that the British would have been so magnanimous if they knew what was under all that sand? So it's not like the current ruling family has any more of a legitimate claim to the oil fields than anybody else. They were put in place by the British and kept there by the Americans and they can just as easily be taken out again.

And it's not like we have to take over the whole country. Fortunately, the oil fields are concentrated near the Persian Gulf, hundreds of miles from the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. We'll leave them the rest of the country. They can keep the seaside resort of Jeddah and their tourism franchise on the holy cities.

But we'll take the petroleum. Because at the end of the day, no people has an inherent or perpetual right to any land or resources. The earth's treasures belong to all of humankind, really. Whoever happens to live on a piece of land is merely a tenant and a steward, with the obligation to both defend his possession and to utilize the resources well. And if you can't defend your land and manage your resources, somebody else will move in and take them away from you. That's how history works. Always has, always will. The Saudis happen to possess the oil fields by way of historic and geologic accidents. They don't have the werewithal to defend the territory (that falls on us anyway). It's really only the westerners who have the technology to extract the minerals in the first place. And the Saudis have used their accidental wealth in the worst possible ways -- for the pleasure of the profligate royal family, denying freedom, decent education and opportunity to their subjects, treating the women worst of all, and exporting hatred, fanaticism and terror. They simply don't deserve to hold on to the immense wealth that happened to fall into their laps in the last hundred years.

So yes, the United States and Britain and our allies should simply take possession of the oil fields that our troops and weapons are already defending. And we should be charitable. We should run the oil fields and refineries, give the local residents good jobs at good wages, with benefits and holidays and health care. Local women will have equal opportunity to work for, alongside, and above both local and foreign men. And we shouldn't be greedy about all those billions in revenues. Whatever rents and royalties that would have gone to the Saudi government should go instead to a non-profit foundation, administered by U.S.-led international committee. This foundation would use its resources in many positive ways: funding research for renewable, non-polluting fuels; economic and social betterment of the region in a kind of a Marshall plan, building schools and industries to employ, educate and train the locals in running a self-sufficient free-market democracy; as well as economic development in other third-world nations.

And we should also confiscate the oil fields from the other rogue states, like Iraq and Libya. Hopefully, some of the other states in the region, like Kuwait and the Emirates, will catch a clue and reform on their own. If not, we'll take their oil and give it to the Foundation too. Many in the Arab world won't like this idea. But they had their chance to do something constructive with all their mineral wealth and they blew it. At this point, they can go pound sand."

(from stefan sharkosky)