Much criticism has been leveled at American president Joe Biden regarding his recent visit and exchange with Saudi Arabia ruler Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, otherwise known as MBS.  Given that during his 2020 presidential campaign Biden vowed to make MBS an international pariah for his well established involvement in the assassination of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, many people accused Biden of hypocrisy.

    I suppose they have a point.  Why does the so-called leader of the free world freely consort, even seem to support, a person who apparently ordered the brutal murder of a prominent dissident?  MBS's conduct seems antithetical to everything for which an American president supposedly stands.  Moreover, the sheer immorality of a ruler who did that of which MBS is accused definitively challenges all boundaries of a reasonable political imagination.

    Unfortunately, it is America's dependence on oil that is ultimately driving Biden's actions.  With inflation and high gas prices pushing his approval rating to an all time low, Biden likely felt forced to reestablish relations with the Saudis and their oil reserved:  his presidency depended on it.  On the other hand, every one of Biden's predecessors did exactly the same thing:  they were willing to tolerate, even enable, the actions of dictatorial Saudi monarchs to ensure American access to Saudi Arabian oil.

    Other Western nations are no different, either.  In the end, it's all about the West getting what it believes it deserves:  continued affluence.

    Regardless of the compromises its people must make to get it.  While I appreciate my Western lifestyle as much as my next door neighbor, I do not believe we can pretend that it does not come without a tremendous cost, ecological, economic, and, most of all, moral.

    And who are we to think we can be the ultimate moral arbiter?