This week the TV news showed us images of George Bush, president of the United States and supposed leader of the free world, carrying a Saudi sword while dancing with a member of the Saudi royal family. For me, this ultimate indignity on the part of our president was reminiscent of a drunken Boris Yeltsin, leader of a failed Soviet Union playing "would you like to lead a band ?"
Doubtless George, wearing his now famous smirk, saw no loss of dignity in playing the court jester for his Arab friends, perhaps to win them over to his pathetic plea for OPEC to sell more oil to assist the U.S. economy, one of their biggest customers as Bush reminded them.
Their curt response was they will increase their sales when the market warrants it, thereby putting Bush in his place and inferentially reminding him that the OPEC cartel does not exist to do the U.S. favors. Its ability to squeeze the U.S. in a time of economic crisis, despite Bush's supposed generosity in approving a large sale of sophisticated arms to Saudi Arabia, is a blunt reminder of who is in the economically dominant position, in U.S.- Saudi relations. Way to go George!
Randy Ludacer
Lake Placid

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