Opaque Lucidity

Our "Partner in Peace"

From the Washington Post:

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

If you read the entire article, you'll see that this is not the first conference of this type presided over by Saudi Arabia this year. Yet, despite this external move towards some sort of ecumenical understanding, the ruling family in Saudi Arabia still rules over possibly the most restrictive regime in the world after North Korea. And yet, President Bush will be there to hold hands and smile. You know why.

One thing that would at least make me respect President-elect Obama is if he took a hard line with respect to the Saudis, but the chances of this happening are slim. A century from now, when Middle Eastern oil is a memory and the world is a far different place than it is now, historians will scratch their heads and wonder why we tolerated a terror-supporting, fascist theocracy for so long.