Evidence abounds that Iran was behind Sunday's attack on oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia. Much as Yemen's ragtag, Iran-backed Houthi rebels would like to think they were the ones who directed what appear to be 17 cruise missiles or drones with pinpoint accuracy against distant Saudi oil facilities, the world knows better. Other nations can react as they choose, but this country has no responsibility to react at all, nor should it.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened military action against Iran for recent attacks on Persian Gulf oil tankers and the downing of a U.S. military drone near Iranian airspace. Fortunately, cooler heads have prevailed among Trump's national security team. He now says the United States is "locked and loaded" for a response to this latest attack. Americans need to demand to know why, because this is not America's war. Trump, not Iran, abrogated the accord that stopped Iran's uranium-enrichment program.

The United States has no mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia obligating this country to come to the kingdom's aid. Since the early 1980s, the kingdom has purchased hundreds of billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry — AWACs radar planes, missile-defense systems, tanks, attack jets and precision-guided bombs. After the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia embarked on an even more intense crash program to defend itself. It should be allowed every opportunity to do so.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly tested its alliance with Washington. Saudi-funded religious schools helped provide the radical Sunni Muslim indoctrination that filled the ranks of al-Qaida. Saudi nationals have carried out attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities. Of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, 15 were Saudi nationals, as was al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Neighboring Yemen has been in a state of civil war for decades. In the latest incarnation of hostilities, Iran is backing Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia, leading a small anti-Houthi coalition, has bombed hospitals, schools, markets and, on Sept. 1, a prison, resulting in countless deaths of civilian non-combatants.

Saudi Arabia also has yet to account for its murder and dismemberment, inside a Saudi diplomatic compound in Turkey, of a Washington Post columnist.

This is hardly a nation worthy of U.S. defense. The kingdom arrests political dissidents, oppresses women and evades responsibility for its actions. Not a drop of American blood nor a dime in U.S. military expenditures should go to defend a notoriously corrupt royal family wallowing in wealth.

Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil, for sure, and disruption of those oil supplies definitely would challenge Trump's ability to keep the U.S. economy stable ahead of the 2020 elections. But those are reasons to continue decoupling U.S. dependence on unreliable Saudi oil — not defending a kingdom that fails, in all respects, to uphold the basic values America stands for.

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