The Supplicant to Kings and “Entrepreneurs”

Via email, joejoejoe highlighted a line from Bush’s speech to Saudi "entrepreneurs" that Holden had highlighted.

And one of my concerns was after September the 11th that our visa policy, particularly for Saudis, was tightened to the point where we missed opportunity to show young and old alike what our country is really about.

As joejoejoe points out, we tightened a very permissive visa policy with the Saudis because 15 Saudis used that permissive visa policy to enter the US and kill 3000 Americans. Letting Khalid al-Midhar into the country to see "what our country is really about" apparently did little to persuade him not to get into a plane and kill lots of Americans.

But that wasn’t the only supplication that Bush offered these Saudi businessmen. Here’s the whole statement.

I’m George W. Bush, President of the United States. (Laughter.) Thank you all for joining us. Ambassador, thanks for setting this up. It’s important for the President to hear thoughts, hopes, dreams, aspirations, concerns from folks that are out making a living. And I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to come and visit with me. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

One thing that’s for certain: The United States benefits when people come to my country. And one of my concerns was after September the 11th that our visa policy, particularly for Saudis, was tightened to the point where we missed opportunity to show young and old alike what our country is really about. I love the fact that some of you were educated in America. I think you’ll find you got a good education there, but more importantly, Americans get to see you, and you get to see them. And the best way to achieve better understanding in the world is for folks just to get together, and get to understand that we share the same God, and we share the same aspirations for children and for our futures.

And so this is an important visit for me. I’m thrilled to be in the Kingdom. I have — I’ve got very close relations with His Majesty. We had a good visit last night on a variety of subjects. We talked about Palestinian peace; we talked about the security issues of the region. I talked to the Ambassador, and will again talk to His Majesty tonight about the fact that oil prices are very high, which is tough on our economy, and that I would hope, as OPEC considers different production levels, that they understand that if their — one of their biggest consumers’ economy suffers, it will mean less purchases, less oil and gas sold.

And so we’ve got a lot of things to talk about, but I want to assure you it’s from the spirit of friendship. And the hospitality last night was warm, and the conversation was excellent — just like this one is going to be.

So I want to thank you for coming. I appreciate your time.

At a time when American business are desperately begging foreign investors–many of them government owned–to save our economy, our President is traipsing around the cash-heavy Middle East with his pop-psych understanding of people and a naive belief that these men "out making a living" aren’t interested in one thing, first and foremost, making a living. No matter how many times we let them come to the US so that "Americans get to see them and they get to see us," it’s not going to the change the fact that the US is bargaining begging from a very weak position and these "entrepreneurs" are in a position to make demands–with regards to things like visa policies and direct foreign investments–that cut to the heart of why Bush has done little to make this country more safe.

We’ll be in the position of begging for money (and for lower petroleum prices) for the foreseeable future. It’s a pity we’ve got someone who pretends to remain in a position of strength out there doing the begging.