I'm not a great fan of Saudi Arabia, but I have to defend the Saudis when they are used as a lever politically against George Bush as they are in this article:

Why America Is More Dependent Than Ever on Saudi Arabia

"The Saudis are in a great position today," said Jean-François Seznec, a professor at Columbia University's Middle East Institute. "We cannot be enemies with everybody. We need their oil desperately."

Indeed, the alternatives to Saudi Arabia are fewer today than seemed to be the case just three years ago. Predictions of a boom in Iraqi oil have been proved wrong; Iran, OPEC's second-largest oil producer, is locked on a collision course with the West; Venezuela is following an erratic path; and Russia's commitment to market reforms and foreign investments seems increasingly unreliable.

That's some pretty scary, er, stuff. Why they've got us by the balls! They must supply us with 80% of our oil! The real truth is somewhere around 50%.

Gotcha! You probably believed that too you're so scared. The truth is that Saudi Arabia sells us only about 7% of the oil we use everyday. Half comes from our own production and we get roughly the same amount of oil from the Saudis as we do on average from Canada, Mexico and Nigeria which are not even mentioned above. Of the countries that are mentioned, we don't do business with Iran and Russia accounts for less than 1% of what we consume.

Yes, let's reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but let's not pretend that we are "desperate" with regards to any individual source. I won't even go into ANWR.

UPDATE: Here's a few like minded posts which I got from Instapundit.

Big Oil: Saudis Must be Scarier than Canadians

Which Country is Really Dependent?