It's a very important step in turning over security to the Iraqis.
Pakistan is far away and it's not Arab. The positive things we do in Pakistan don't register that loudly in the Arab world.
To get to 6 million barrels a day will require $30 billion to $40 billion in investment, and it assumes a bull market for oil. If you just start doubling production, but demand stays the same, that's wasteful.
If you talk to American players and the Saudis, they will tell you it was a purely economic decision.
Unlike in the United States, where it feels like high prices are going to last forever, in the Middle East, the feeling is that it will not last. So how do you avoid the problems of the 1980s that followed the boom of the 1970s?
We know wealthy Saudis are funding terror. With higher oil prices, they just have more money to do so.
The earthquake relief is quickly forgotten. The anti-Americanism runs so deep that even positive efforts can be spun against the U.S.
The UAE is the major banking center in the area, and they realized that unless they got serious about fixing their banking laws, their entire economic base would collapse.
The tricky problem in peace talks is always Jerusalem.
People are making decisions to invest elsewhere than in the U.S.. Gulf money is being invested in Europe and Asia. This furthers that trend.
