Ha Szaud-Arábia fokozná az olajkitermelést, akkor csökkennének az olajárak és ez növelné Bush esélyeit a Novemberben esedékes elnökválasztáson.

Bush és a Szaudi uralkodócsalád között állítólag szoros kapcsolatok vannak.
Vajon segítenek a Szaudiak Bushnak idén ősszel?

No “October Surprise” Courtesy Of The Saudis

Worried about $40 oil? You needn’t be, if Bob Woodward is anybody to go by. According to Woodward, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on Election Day. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election.

It sounds wonderful, but if such a pledge were ever given, Saudi actions in the past year suggest that it has been revoked, largely in response to the growing geopolitical morass that is developing in the Middle East. In the aftermath of Gulf War II, it was felt that mobilization against Iraq would give the United States a renewed opportunity to expand its power and influence in the region -- this time potentially to use its new Persian Gulf bases to establish even more bases in the ancient territories between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq, whilst remaking a hitherto backward region into a bastion of Anglo-American liberal-democracy. More importantly, were the oil fields seized as a by-product of this invasion, many of the neo-cons who now dominate Administration thinking felt that it would give America a de facto seat in OPEC, with the control of a huge cash generating asset required to fund its massive domestic and overseas debt build-up. At the same time, it was also hoped that President Bush would use his expanded leverage to press for a comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

All of these blithe assumptions look questionable today, to say the least.