by D. Cupples | Based on President Bush's itinerary, former Mid East Ambassador Marc Ginsberg suspects that the president accomplished nothing substantive for our nation during his recent Mid-East tour:
"I hope I am wrong, and that facts will bear out that there was no pecuniary motive to Bush's grand tour other than a long-overdue effort by him to vainly attempt to repair the damage his administration has wrought on U.S. interests in the Middle East. Except I just cannot come up with anything tangible that Bush actually accomplished on the trip and neither can his WH [White House] coterie briefing the accompanying press pool." ("That Saudi Funded West Wing?" at Huffington Post)
One stop on the president's tour was Saudi Arabia, where he reportedly sought to persuade the king to increase oil production so as to lower oil prices, which recently hit a record-high $100 per barrel -- creating U.S. fears about inflation. Reuters reported:
"Saudi Arabia is the world's top oil exporter and OPEC's most influential member. OPEC, which meets in two weeks to set policy, gave a guarded response to Bush's call to raise production."
Perhaps this is related to President Bush's push to sell arms to the Saudis. Republican Presidential candidate Fred Thompson commented:
"It's not in the United States' long-term interest to go hat in hand begging people to do things that in the end we know they're not going to do....
"What we need to concentrate on is diversifying our own energy sources here in this country and opening up what oil reserves that we have here.... (Reuters)
Memeorandum has other bloggers commentary.
Other BN-Politics Posts:
* Congressmen Try to Block Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia
* $1 billion More in Military Hardware Lost in Iraq
* GAO: Defense Dept. Failing to Protect Weapons Technology
* Navy Now Suspects Prankster (Not Iranians) Threatened Ships
* Iran: is the Administration Telling the Truth or Saving Face?
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