Back in 1990, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was blasting his way through Kuwait and threatening to continue his rampage southward down the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf Arab oil leaders were apoplectic with fear and outrage over the violation of a sovereign state’s territory by a tyrant. They jetted to the United States to offer desperate promises on bent knee: anything the Americans want, just turn back this invasion and restore Kuwait’s sovereignty.
Then there was the petroleum-rich Gulf states’ outrage over the violation of sovereign territory during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when Israel seized large swaths of neighboring Arab land. The Arab oil producers organized an international boycott, demanding that the United States force Israel to respect sovereign territory and comply with international law.
Fast forward to 2022. A tyrant from Russia is rampaging through Ukraine. Freedom-loving nations around the globe are taking a principled stand in defense of the occupied and in condemnation of the aggressor. And from the Arab Gulf states? Crickets. Forgotten are all those moral, righteous stands quoting U.N. resolutions about the unacceptability of acquiring territory by use of force. Equally forgotten is the concept of strategic alliances and friendship with the United States, the nation whose troops sacrificed multiple times on the battlefield for the survival of those Gulf monarchies.
