Lew Hodgett wrote:

I wrote:

The shrub asked the Saudis to increase oil production in Feb, they
ignored him.

The shrub asked the Saudis to increase oil production today, they
said "No", AKA: "Up Yours".


Picture if you will, Shrub, groveling at the feet of his Arab camel
jockey host, begging for an increase in his allowance, only to be told
"No".


Gives you a lot of confidence? NOT!

Lew

Should be a strong object lesson of what happens when you try to negotiate
with nothing to back it up. Does the idea of unilaterally disarming (ala
Barack Obama's pledge to suspend development of missile defense systems and
new weapon systems) not provide a diplomatic analog to the inability to
have anything from which to negotiate (i.e, the threat to increase our own
production) in this case?

The US has no position from which to negotiate in this case, the Saudis
know that our liberal environmental radicals will prevent any further
development in the US, so they pretty much hold all the cards.

--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough