They finally got the message, that the USA isn’t going to pay this bill. France has announced that they’re sending “Defensive troops and defense systems to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port city Yanbu to secure the city’s energy facilities from Houthi attacks”. “We are going to send military resources, that is to say, soldiers, radar systems and defense systems, to protect this site – not to get us involved in any conflicts, but to protect this site,” Macron told French media Thursday.” France is joining the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece and others already there defending Europe’s oil supply, since the US has pointedly declined the Saudi’s repeated requests to defend them.
The French have no desire to involve themselves in a fight with Iran but they’re stuck without a winter supply of energy to heat their homes this coming winter unless they step up and act to protect it. The USA is no longer going to sacrifice our soldiers and treasure to do what France and the rest of Europe should be doing for themselves.
Because Putin won’t quit, Russia’s oil refineries are being destroyed by Ukrainian drones while Saudi Arabia’s refineries are being attacked by Houthi missiles and Iran’s drones. You can pump all the oil out of the ground that you want to, but it can’t be used unless you can refine it and it’s for damn sure that Western Europe has zero interest in defending Russian refineries.