Bush: 'Worst of both worlds'
2004-09-21 18:18
Madrid - US President George W Bush has offered his country "the worst of both worlds" with his policies on Iraq and Saudi Arabia, setting back the cause of peace, controversial author Craig Unger said here on Tuesday.
"The irony is Bush gives us the worst of both worlds," said Unger who has, along with film director Michael Moore, spearheaded a wave of anti-Bush sentiment and whose book House of Bush, House of Saud, was the inspiration behind Moore's documentary smash hit Fahrenheit 9/11.
Castigating Bush for being in his view "soft on the Saudis" with regard to the perceived spread of extremist Wahhabist Islam in their own ranks, Unger charged that the president "has totally destabilised the Middle East."
For Unger, the United States' addiction to Saudi 'black gold' are likely to have dire consequences at a time when "we've turned a horrible corner in world history."
Around that corner, Unger alleges, is an instable geopolitical future, fuelled by the fallout from Iraq.
"We are increasingly entering an era of oil wars and Iraq in my opinion is an oil war," said Unger, who said his assessment of the deep ties running through the Bush administration and the Saudi regime had brought him "a lot of hate mail.
In addition, he said, some Republicans had "painted me as a conspiracy nut."
But, he added defiantly, "truth is a defence. Period."
Asked if a Bush re-election on November 2 was as dangerous as the Saudi regime collapsing and giving way to an unknown quantity, Unger said neither scenario was appetising.
"The US needs oil. If the House of Saud falls whoever replaced it would likely be more anti-West and that would be very difficult.
Re-electing Bush 'very dangerous'
"At the same time I think (re-electing) Bush would be very dangerous."
Unger insisted that Bush "should have demanded transparency" into Saudi connections to the September 11 attacks in the United States.
His book and Moore's film make great play of the fact that 140 Saudis were flown home from the United States immediately following September 11 at a time when commercial flights were grounded.
"These flights needed White House approval. They got White House approval," Unger noted.
Unger blasted the "neo-conservative" strand running through the Bush administration, arguing that "the neo-cons do not, I believe, have a real constituency in the US.
"They have a policy-making power which exceeds their constituency."
Unger argued that even a Bush defeat at the hands of Democrat challenger John Kerry would not necessarily help the US cause.
"If Kerry is elected there'd be a possibility of starting to repair the damage. But it would take years.
"Right now even the most moderate Arab leader cannot be seen in public with a president of the United States," Unger concluded.