The Why of Chokingly High Oil Prices

Bush Together with Saudi Arabia Spells Disaster for America

There was a time when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) controlled by Saudi Arabia and under the pragmatic thumb of
Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, would have opened wide the oil spigots in the
face of sky high prices and a looming U.S. economic recession. The
kingdom’s wily old minister wanted to maintain a balance, siphoning off
just enough out of consumer’s pockets to keep the kingdom in opulent
palaces and extravagant gift items for U.S. Presidents — all without
strangling the egg-laden Yankee goose that made the royal family’s
life both fabulous and secure. Then too, no one in the oil patch
wanted prices so high as to make the search for alternative fuels economical.



How quaint such reasoning seems today with Ali-al Naimi running the
Saudi oil ministry. The U.S. economy is tanking (literally) with oil prices
having hit an unthinkable new high of $126 a barrel all the while with
OPEC thumbing its nose at George W. Bush’s lame plea to his very dear
friend, Saudi King Abdullah to pump more oil. This in spite of being
the recipient of the showy piece of neckwear that comes with
the King Abdul Azziz Order of Merit and all the kissing and hand holding
and weapons package procuring during his last swing through the
Middle East.

Huffington Post