In general we suck up to the Saudis, maybe trying to avoid the Jimmy Carter embargo error, which maybe was conceived as a way to get back the hostages from freshly empowered fanatics. It didn't work.

But S.A. has a GDP of 800 billion. I think their holdings in US debt are a sop. Anyway, debt is money, money is debt, US currency is the world standard by mutual agreement, the Saudis do themselves a favor more than they do us a favor. You can take that to the bank. They are buying us cheap.