George W. Bush went to Saudi Arabia yesterday and asked for the owners of the country to do him a favor by increasing oil production. King Abdullah refused him.
According to the May 5, 2008 New Yorker magazine, F.D.R. wrote to King Ibn Saud in 1943 asking for help in bringing peace to Palestine. The King responded that he “was prepared to receive anyone of any religion except (repeat except) a Jew.”
Philip,
Might want to check that refusal again. The generous king recanted his refusal and will grant a small token for us (ie the US) next month.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051601111.html?hpid=topnews
I am already planning on how to spend the extra .02 per gallon I will save next month. Those Saudi’s sure are a generous lot 😉
The truth is, of course, that the Saudis already are pumping flat out and cannot produce much more.
To be fair, the US was barely less anti-semitic than the Saudis in 1943. Prominent people like Henry Ford could publish the Protocols of the Elders of Sion without being challenged or ostracized by polite society, Ivy League schools and the US Army had strict quotas on Jewish students or officers, and refugees from nazi persecution were turned away at the borders.
Then again, the US has evolved since, Saudi Arabia hasn’t.
I don’t know if the Saudis are pumping flat out or not, but refining capacity is certainly maxed. The whole thing was a publicity exercise gone wrong.