Dec. 15, 2005
 
COMMENTARY: Saudis Doing Well on Our Ticket
 
By Joseph J. Honick
 
I opened the Business Section of the New York Times this morning and did a double take that almost wrenched my neck. The headline read: “Saudi Arabia Looks Past Oil.” The subhead: “ Enriched by Record Prices, The Nation Seeks to Diversify.”
 
To many that might not seem like much of a surprise. We all know the Saudis are awash in wealth much created by you and me at the gas pump on almost a daily basis. But wait: we have been told by President Bush we have risked the lives of tens of thousands of our men and women and thousands more of private contractors to bring stability to the Middle East by engaging in a preemptive war against Iraq! Doesn’t that somehow suggest we are there once more to save the hides of Iraq’s neighbors as well as we did in Gulf War I?
 
Unless I missed something in the White House recitation of the coalition nations, I saw nothing that included the armies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or any of the other Arab nations the headlines tell us are raking in gobs of dough from us and other customers. I have not seen as well any indication that any of that wealth has been pumped into the billions our government is spending weekly in Iraq while having to skin a variety of important domestic programs.
 
This should not be thought of as an issue of Democrats versus Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives. The outrage should be all-American.
 
What is just as disturbing is why this subject has not been raised by any of the media anywhere at anytime. Why has no one at presidential press conferences or at the variety of so called “briefings” asked about this?
 
According to The Times, the Saudis “may be experiencing its third oil boom in three decades….” The story went on to say the nation could keep on its current pace for another 70 years!
 
Also noted is the reality the private sector is flourishing at a record rate, and the Saudi stock market has become one of the world’s top performers.
 
So what is going on here? Are we fighting to defend American territory or working real hard for the Saudis and their friends as we did in the early 90’s? And why are these questions not being addressed anywhere? ``
 
If you want a real neck-wrencher, check out the fact our president boasts of our national economic growth for the past quarter and the coming year and then note the Saudis will be on a pace 6.5% “thanks to record oil prices.”
 
What we have been told by oil company executives who were not required to swear to the truth of their testimony in recent weeks is that there are just not enough refineries being built. So how come our powerful trade representatives have either failed to or simply have not tried to negotiate some deals with the Saudis whose pockets are daily filled because we are spending our own financial and human capital to keep them well fed? As to those oil company executives who unblushingly said they were doing their best, why did no one, from either side of the aisle at the hearings face them with the contradictions of their comments.
 
On the one hand, these guys asserted that the recent natural disasters reduced their capacity to produce while demand remained high. They went on to claim that trying to play catch up, their costs spiraled as well. It would not take much deductive reasoning at high school level to figure out that such circumstances would reduce profits in order to work overtime and drain resources. This, however, has not been the case as oil company profits zoomed to record levels even as the disasters allegedly drained their ability to produce.
 
Putting the outrageous revelations of the Saudis living high on our men and women at risk in the field and our own wallets here at home together with the blather of the almost unchallenged oil company executives who must have jollied themselves up at some lobbyist-owned restaurant on Capital Hill after those hearings, and you have a picture that should inflame the hearts and minds of every American.
 
But inflaming American hearts and mind does not happen very easily, what with the wide variety of television network and televangelists posing as news outlets and spiritual uplifters.
 
Hell, the Saudis have not even had the good grace to send us Christmas presents or wish us Happy Holidays. We know they will ignore Chanukah.
 
And then there is another bottom line question: why are we not demanding that Iraqi oil pay much of the cost of our efforts to save the country.
 
The questions go on and on with the real question being: why are they either not asked at all or just weakly approached?
 
Honick is a contributing columnist to Huntington News Network.