Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Needs a Lesson in Manners

After visiting the president in Crawford, Texas, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah had a few things to say about George W. Bush:

He goes to bed at 9:30 p.m.

Is that a bad thing?

He watches the domestic news.

Should he be watching Al Jazeera?

He doesn't seem to be informed on the Palestinian problem.

Says who? The crown prince?

Did Bush know he was in for a pop quiz when he invited Abdullah to the ranch?

What happened to simple manners? Did the president go out and say to the world, Crown Prince Abdullah wears a sheet and wants to stay up all night sipping bitter coffee? No.

Did the president go out an say the prince watches Qatar television, with all its propagandistic aims of stirring up Arab resentment of the West, getting angry when he — the president of the United States — didn't buy it as truth?

Did Bush go out and say that even though Abdullah came into his house with pictures of Palestinians and their troubles, the Saudi prince would darn sure be insulted if anyone dragged out pictures of Israelis being blown to bits by suicide bombers? Or pictures of Americans being blown to bits by Saudi hijackers?

Did the president say to him, "Look Abdullah, how come you allow your system to produce so many young men who have to direct their anger at America? They might just as well blame you for the Palestinian's plight. After all, you haven't given the Palestinians any land. You have kept them in filthy refugee camps, and you have made the ones in your country household help and stoop laborers. Your own people don't dare be angry at you, because you'd cut their heads off. Instead, they take out their frustration with you on us. You encourage them to do so with that satellite TV network you own, and the money you spend on hate-spewing Muslim clerics."

President Bush didn't say any of these things. He didn't conclude Prince Abdullah's visit by asking him how dare he come into his house and blame him for the problems the Saudi government has created.

He didn't ask the prince how dare he blame the U.S. for what the Israelis do, as if giving them guns to protect themselves from invading Arab armies is somehow a go-ahead to beat up on the Palestinians.

No. Our president was too polite. That… or he wants the Saudis to keep pumping us oil.

That's My Word.

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