Desert Chill

摘要

Last August, Prince Bandar bin Sultan―fighter pilot, Johns Hopkins University graduate, and longtime Saudi envoy in Washington―paid a personal call on George W. Bush at the President's Crawford, Tex., ranch. The American leader escorted Bandar and his wife around the 1.600-acre spread. Later, Bush hosted the couple and six of their eight children at a lunch-time barbecue. It was a gesture of friendship offered to few heads of state, let alone diplomats. And it had a purpose. The President's hospitality was meant to signal his desire to remain on good terms with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a key supplier of the West's crude oil and a highly influential player in Gulf and Arab politics. Publicly, at least, the effort was a rousing success.