>>- permitting exit from Saudi Arabia, which has all kinds of side benefits itself
>
>Hi Jim,
>
> I keep reading posts around here that say: Oil is a sure thing, and Saudi Arabia is a sure and trusted friend. I read a good article in the May issue of the Atlantic that said nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, the article wasn't made available online because the author is publishing it as part of a book. There is an interview with him though that reviews some of the points of the article - http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2003-05-29.htm
>Some points not covered in the interview:
>The US depends on Saudi Arabia for 18% of its oil, down from 28% a decade ago
>The Saudis have as much $1 trillion on deposit in US banks and $1 trillion in the US stock market
>One of the Saudi princes funelled $100 million to the Taliban in 1997.
>Per capita income in Saudi Arabia has fallen from $28,600 in 1981 to $6,800 in 2001.
>This article made a convincing argument that one way or another, something bad is likely to happen in Saudi Arabia in the next decade. Could you imagine the disaster this would cause in the West (and globally I would think) if that supply of oil was taken off the market? Or if the Saudis were overthrown and Saddam was still in power in Iraq? Whether the war was precipitated (by exaggerating the immediacy of the threat) or not, we certainly have a much different situation in that region now, and for pretty serious reasons that have nothing to do with WMD.

I agree. It is overall excellent that Saddam is gone. The issue to me, though, is how his overthrow was justified.
They were bringing democracy to the people of Iraq. Democracy gives the people a voice in the affairs of their country. For that voice to be meaningful it has to decide based on facts and truth. The facts/truth offered as primary reasons to war on Iraq were WMD and terrorist connections.
So we have the world's two great democracies usurping real democracy for some other purpose that was not included in the equation to be judged by the people.

Never forget two things:
1) Because the world's oil supply is now certainly in decline (there are no estimated unfound reserves of consequence), control of supply is essential from here on in;
2) The cabal, now holding powerful positions and having the ear of the President, has stated outright that it is an imperative to maintain the supremacy of the U.S. until forever, that it can and should use any means necessary to do that, so that American "interests" will always be secure.

cheers