Currently Reading
Posted at 9:22 am on Tuesday, October 28, 2008, in Reading, and tagged nine-eleven, saudi arabia.
This is a catch-up post. I finished my previous book on my flight to New Orleans (over a month ago). Advice for later: always bring a backup book.
The third version of Thomas Friedman’s tome made me realize how flat the world is, and it did re-affirm my beliefs in free markets and capitalism, although I do believe that fair trade is vitally important (but Friedman didn’t necessarily leave this out, he just de-emphasized it).
I am already halfway through my next book, Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude by former CIA officer Robert Baer…
Image: Amazon.com
The history of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia is fascinating, and the underlying fact that our entire economy is hinged upon this fragile courtship makes understanding the relationship that much more critical. This is one aspect of world history (or modern history, although the book includes a primer on ancient Saudi and Muslim history) that I needed a better understanding of, and to hear the accounts of the copious amounts of corruption and influence-peddling from a former CIA officer is a refreshing touch.
Here is a teaser of what I have learned so far… The U.S.-Saudi relationship started immediately following World War II when Franklin Roosevelt met with the King of Saudi Arabia and arranged a mutual interest deal: the U.S. would protect the kingdom in return for exclusive rights to explore the oil within the kingdom’s underlying sands. As a result, both nations got very, very rich; so rich, in fact, that the kingdom has effectively owned exclusive rights to U.S. foreign policy ever since (including before and after the horrific events of nine-eleven).
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