The King and I

Dr. Evil: Oh hell, let's just do what we always do.
Hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage.
We hold the world ransom for...
One Hundred BILLION DOLLARS!
--Austin Powers (1997)

In this day and age, what the fuck is this world coming to?
I can't believe this, prejudice against--a Jew broad?
Prejudice against Italians?
--Goodfellas (1990)
__________

George W. Bush's recent visit slumming it with Prince Abdullah in the ruby-encrusted tents got me thinking about who and what is evil, and who is eviler. The security of America is the mission and the responsibility of our president. All else is icing.

What is the relevance of Presiden Bush's callow constructions of good vs. evil? While true in formative thinking we come to understand ourselves in opposition to or as reflections of others, a mature nation need not enhance its standing by the demonization of another. One does not need the evil twin to remain the Guy in the White Hat.

The demonization of Iran does not slide us to the absolute left on the morality scale, ipso facto making us good guys. The President is ostensibly advocating for peace, yet he threatens Iran, playing up a phony "gun-boat" incident. He always has to be the badass. You think he would learn by now that divisive posture compromises diplomatic progress and is counterproductive to the security of America.

A propitious opening shot for that elusive peace, his bellicosity belies his juvenile state of maturation; "Do as we say, not as we do," is his message.

After Bush threatened Iran, he visited some Holocaust memorials and made what he thought would be a soft landing in Saudi Arabia, home of his family's old buddies, the House of Saud.

He was given the dog-and-pony show, replete with stud horses who get hydrotherapy treatment (I do not think U.S. Medicaid recipients are privy to hydrotherapy treatment.) Then he got a phony gold medallion to wear around his neck to make it official: He and the King are asshole buddies.

This friendship prompts Mr. Bush to promise billions of dollars in arms sales to S.A., predicated on the myth that Iran is a clear and present threat. Omitting of course the fact that U.S. invasions have elevated the Iranian hegemony in the region.

Forgetting that the Saudis are making $100's of billions of windfall profits from the war and the sale of oil to a prostrate and supplicant America. Forgetting that the preponderance of foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudis. Forgetting that the Saudi foreign minister won't shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Annapolis, and that Saudi Arabia does not even recognize the State of Israel. Forget that Wahabi violence and Saudi money funds extreme Islam throughout the world.

It is a good thing Bush lacks a photographic memory.

Christian crusader Bush has late decided that he would add his imprimatur to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Bush is desperate for a legacy, but this will not be it. He is playing in the wrong sandboxes, and he is totally outclassed. GHWB's buddies in Saudi Arabia are not alchemists, and will not turn a loser into a winner, not even with all the hydrotherapy in the kingdom.

The U.S. citizens are left ass-kissing the Saudis via our President and congressionally-approved sales of weaponry to a questionable kingdom that is not our friend. Profitable business alliances with the Bush family are not synonymous with the best interests of America at large.

S.A. is a necessary evil, but they are not friends. U.S. policy may reflect this fact when the last vestiges of the Bush's are removed from policymaking.