Washington DC, December, 2077, Sunday…
The Saudi ambassador, dressed in the traditional black business suit of Washington, except for the addition of Arab headwear, shook the hand of Susan Winters and inclined his head slightly. His nation was a beleaguered one, barely holding on as its oil reserves dwindled to nothing. The jackals were ready to pounce.
And here I am begging for a handout from a woman. For many decades the Saudi royal family had performed a dangerous balancing act. On one hand they pretended to be a moderating voice in the Arab world and to be friends with the US, especially those involved in the oil business. This made a very small percentage of Saudis very wealthy while the many that had no participation in the riches that oil brought sunk deeper into poverty. On the other hand, they pretended to be good Sunni Muslims who hated the West, contributing heavily to the religious schools who taught the radical Islamic fundamentalism that had plagued the world for much of the 21st century.
The balancing act led to the downfall of the royal house of Saud. It got them into trouble several times, first when they sponsored the Sunni backlash against the Shi'ites during the second Iraqi war and then again in the last war in the Middle East when they tried to rally support against the invading Shi'ite armies from Teheran. In both cases, the Sunni radicals eventually turned on the royals. Finally the radicals won the day. Now, years later, even the radicals were not so radical. The Saudi dictatorship could not feed its people.
The Middle East had been smoldering for many years as the West fought to maintain control of its oil. First Great Britain and then the US were responsible for many blunders. Early on both had used the Soviet Union as an excuse to thwart nationalistic movements in the name of the fight against communism. Then it became the War on Terror as many of the fighters who rallied against the Soviets with US help turned on their enemies in the West and the state of Israel.
But once the oil wells started drying up, there was not much left to fight over. The whole region, including Israel, was barely hanging on as that part of the world descended into a mind-numbing poverty.
The Saudi ambassador was not a stupid man. Educated at Yale in the US and Oxford in England, he was well aware of the dangers his country faced. Three dictators had been deposed since the royal family fell. Yet, because of stupid tradition and culture, he still had difficulties dealing with a woman.
