Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, Catherine Whitney Page B

was declared blameless. I guess that’s what friends are for.
    So, back to the question: Why don’t we bring democracy to our friends the Saudis? This theocracy is opposed to everything we stand for. If you were going to name an axis of evil, you could easily start in Saudi Arabia. It’s an absolute monarchy, where all the decisions are made by the King. There is no constitution. No legislature. No due process. It is illegal to demonstrate against the government. It is illegal to practice any religion but Islam. Corporal punishment is still practiced. (That means if you steal a loaf of bread, they cut off your hand.) Public executions are regularly held. Women are not allowed to vote. Women must have written permission from a man to study, work, or travel. The religious police are everywhere, making sure that women are covered, that women aren’t driving cars, that everyone is toeing the line. These religious police are no better than the Taliban—and let me tell you, they’re scary. Once I was at the Riyadh Hilton with a group of top U.S. executives. We were on a tour of nations, sponsored by Time magazine. The cameraman had a knapsack supposedly full of film canisters, but it actually held dozens of miniature bottles of liquor. He slipped a tiny bottle of scotch into a paper bag, and gave it to me to enjoy in my room. The wife of the American ambassador saw me standing in the hall chatting and holding my little paper bag. She whispered to me, “Better get rid of that. If they find alcohol on you in a public place, they will lock you up tonight, no questions asked, and we will not be able to help you.” I couldn’t drink that bottle fast enough!
    Saudi Arabia is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, with its vast oil wealth being squandered by the few. The excess is mind-boggling. Hundreds of gold-encased palaces, hundreds of wives, millions blown on vacations, gambling, high living. These guys make Saddam Hussein look downright middle-class. Outside the palace gates, ordinary Saudis face high unemployment, a crumbling infrastructure, and a grim future.
    To top it off, every schoolchild in Saudi Arabia is taught that their sole duty in life is to destroy everything America stands for. With friends like these, you don’t need enemies. Why do we tolerate it with a smile?
    The answer is simple: It’s the oil. We have sold our soul for oil. And if that doesn’t piss you off, nothing will. Our troops are being blown up in the Middle East so we can bring democracy to Iraq, while we’re in bed with a regime that would sooner see us wiped off the face of the earth. The only possible explanation is oil.

VIII
     

What will we do for oil?
     
    W hen are we going to stop denying that the energy policy of the United States is run by the oil cartel? Oil is behind the war in Iraq. Oil is the reason we give the fundamentalist, terrorist-breeding theocracy of Saudi Arabia a pass. Oil is the reason we can’t get a goddamn energy policy in this country. Almost every important administration official has a connection to the oil industry.
    You may be thinking, “Lee’s going soft. Now that he’s not building cars, he’s becoming antioil.” But this isn’t about being antioil. It’s about taking an honest look at what our oil connections are doing to us. We’d better get our heads out of the Arabian sand and start facing some facts.
    Can anyone tell me what our long-term energy policy is? I’ve been trying to figure that out, and I keep coming back to oil. Is our only energy policy to open up new drilling sites for oil? I don’t know. Maybe we should ask Dick Cheney.
    Before I die, I want to read the notes from Vice President Cheney’s energy task force. Remember that one? Cheney convened his secret task force within ten days of taking office back in 2001. Who participated? What was discussed? What evidence was outlined? What options were studied?
    Oh, you can’t ask that. Those details were private. It was a