Hi E.P.,

Bush would lean on Russia and our good ex-KGB friend, Putin. At which point he would likely suggest to our arab friends that such is not a smart course of action.

In today's world not enough Arabs are big consumers of US goods (excepting perhaps cigarettes) to make a huge dent in our export revenues. The arab embargos are staged events for media consumption orchestrated here and in europe by arab-friendly groups and other anti-semitic activists. The rich arabs who actually buy (and can afford) US goods - aren't, usually, fundies with an agenda. They will buy their Caddies, their BMW made Rolls, their Sport Utility Vehicles and other items without missing a blink.

The only group that can seriously threaten the US economy - is if the Chinese and the southeast asians ever go on strike. (Fortunately this is unlikely since they have no unions to represent them). So much of our production, from cartoon animation to happy meal toys are made overseas - and even our impressive telecommunications industry farms out answering services to the far east. I don't think anyone quite has the perspective of just how much our Fortune 500 companies really depend upon this labor force. It is a staggering dependency.

Our one fatal corporate weakness is the attraction to using 25c a day slave-type cheap labor. Which is what China and some of these other regions provide in abundance. Considering our mutual user-relationship which glosses over deep mistrust and animosity - this weakness will likely lead to a *real* depression in some future time.

My twenty cents,

SDAI-Tech1