Last week, President Obama made an overnight trip to Saudi Arabia, wrapping up a weeklong trip to Europe and the Gulf state.

He visited with Saudi leader King Abdullah in an effort to alleviate any concerns the Saudi leadership might have with America’s current foreign and economic policies.  Things are changing quickly, both in the politics of the Arab World and the economics of the United States.

The U.S. is now importing less crude oil from Gulf countries than it ever has.  In fact, more than a quarter of all oil imports now come from Canada, our northern neighbor, while 10% come from Mexico.  As a result, the role of Gulf countries in American oil imports has diminished greatly from its heydays in the 1970s through the 1990s.  Still, 13% of our oil comes from Saudi Arabia, but in a changing world, where America can now fill that potential void from different sources at home and abroad, that relationship can perhaps become one where the consumer holds more power than the supplier.

Why, then, did President Obama, make it a point to stop in Saudi Arabia, seemingly coddling King Abdullah? According to sources, Obama chose not to bring up any issues of human rights or women’s rights in his meeting with the monarch.  Instead, he seemingly reassured the Saudi leader of America’s allegiance, despite Abdullah’s efforts to prolong the conflict in Syria and disrupt any hopes the United States might have to normalize relations with Iran.

In this most recent trip, President Obama missed a golden opportunity to let Saudi Arabia know that America is no longer beholden to the political whims of the desert kingdom, in the hopes of moving toward a world with more security, inclusion, and peace.