With Friends Like These... (Part 2)

Yeah, I know it's been awhile since I last posted. While the usual intrusions of real life have contributed to the lack of posts, part of it was general fatigue and disinterest in this longer-than-usual primary season. Anyway, I hope to get back on a roll and post on issues!

First up is this article from the Los Angeles Times that confirms what I have been thinking and blogging about recently: with new powers on the rise like China and India (as I have discussed here), the U.S. can no longer arrogantly depend on its preeminence as the leading economic power to get all the oil it needs affordably.

Nor, apparently, can we depend on our friends. Even the well-documented cozy relationship that the Bush family has enjoyed with the house of Saud over several generations has not helped this Administration ease surging oil prices in the U.S. Despite the spectacle of an American president going hat-in-hand again to beg for help from Saudi Arabia (as I noted here the first time it happened) , the Saudis have all but told Bush and the U.S. to take a hike—now that they've got the Chinese to kiss up to.

If this in itself isn't enough to find new alternative sources of energy, then I don't know what is. The American people are now paying the price of our cronyism with and unwavering support of slimy oil regimes. It's time to stop letting backward Third World fiefdoms from running our lives.

With Friends Like These....

Has it come to this? The leader of (ostensibly) the world’s preeminent nation appearing before the Saudi royal family with hat in hand begging the Saudis and OPEC to lower oil prices?

Surely, if there is any image that underscores the declining prestige of the United States in the world, this is it. We are supposedly a nation that believes in the free market, unless of course, it is contrary to our own economic well being.

I’m sure the President believes that his “special relationship” (read cronies) with the Saudis gives him the latitude to go on his knees before the royal family on the subject.

In response, a Saudi oil minister stated at a press conference after the event, “We will raise production when the market justifies it.”

So much for the President’s special relationship.

Meanwhile, in a region where Bush has called for a "forward strategy of freedom" to promote democracy throughout the Middle East, he conspicuously said little on the subject during his whirlwind tour, and instead strove to shore up his relationships with well known non-democratic states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Additionally, after nearly 8 years of allowing the Israeli-Palestinean conflict to fester, he made a desperate, obvious attempt to salvage what little left is of his legacy with a Hail Mary attempt at a peace accord before he leaves office.

Given the distrust and dislike for Mr. Bush in the region, it’s unlikely any such accord will be looked at favorably until there is a new administration in place that will offer a fresh face and clean slate to move forward—assuming that the issue hasn’t been irrevocably damaged beyond repair.