War for Oil

Zack and Jenn are joined by Matt Yglesias to talk about the worrying fallout of an attack on Saudi oil facilities this weekend. The United States has blamed Iran for the attack, and President Trump tweeted that America is “locked and loaded” to retaliate — but so far, there hasn’t been a military response. The Worldly team talks through the debate over what the US should do, what Trump might be thinking, and the very real chance that escalation could trigger a recession. Jenn busts out some Arabic, Matt comes up with a new CSI spinoff, and Zack brings it back to the original Gulf War.

Links to resources discussed:

Jen Kirby’s explainer on the Saudi Arabia oil attacks.

President Trump’s “locked and loaded” tweet

Matt’s piece, “Trump’s weird ideas on the US-Saudi relationship, sort of explained.” He mentions the Washington Post article about Saudi visits to Trump hotels.

The team discussed Lindsey Graham’s tweets about the situation.

Jenn mentioned that Martin Indyk at Brookings also weighed in.

There are broader reasons to be concerned about a recession, but also reasons tied to these events in Saudi Arabia.

Politifact added nuance to the idea that the US is energy independent.

Matt shouted out some oil price graphs. You can find them here.

It’s been a busy week for foreign news! Zack mentioned articles about a promise made to a foreign leader, Justin Trudeau’s brownface scandal, and Trump’s pick for national security adviser. He also mentioned Today, Explained’s episode about the Israeli election.

Hosts:Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), Senior Foreign Editor, VoxZack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), Senior Correspondent, VoxMatt Yglesias (@mattyglesias), Senior Correspondent, Vox

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