Bush and Cheney to blame?

Some letters in The Herald have attributed the oil crisis of 2000 to manipulations by sleazy politicians. They got it half right, but I suspect it’s different politicians!

Consider this: George Herbert Walker Bush, formerly in the oil business, former CIA director, former ambassador, former vice president and the president who came to the rescue of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War; George W. “Twig” Bush, formerly in the oil business, current Republican candidate for president; Dick Cheney, formerly in the oil business, former secretary of defense, recently an executive of Halliburton Co. and current Republican candidate for vice president.

How difficult would it be for these heavy-hitters in oil and politics to make a few phone calls and, with judiciously applied arm twisting, persuade certain heads of state in certain Mid East nations to cut back on oil production enough to cause the cost of gasoline and heating oil to take off like a cruise missile aimed right at the voter’s wallet? As a Roman politician of 2000 years ago asked, “Cui bono?” To whose profit?

Marysville

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