Back To Normal -- April 6, 2016; New Word For The Day: Riven

Updates

April 6, 2016: in the original post below, I mention Obama's foreign policy doctrine AKA we're sitting this one out. In an update, The Boston Globe says the Obama Doctrine AKA We're Sitting This One Out has made the world a more dangerous place. This is good news for our senior services schools (Air War College, Army War College, Navy War College): this gives them new material to study. The emphasis on the Peloponnesian War was getting a bit long in the tooth.
 

Original Post

Bloomberg is reporting that President Obama is "returning" to Saudi Arabia ... I can't imagine what for? His Mideast policy is well known --- it was reported back in August, 2015, see fourth bullet below:

This is quite fascinating. Before going to the link, recall these items regarding Saudi Arabia:

• the country has a huge under-funded desalination (and existential problem for the Saudis) program;
• recently cancels a $9 billion solar energy program to pay for their desalination program;
• recently completes two new in-country refineries with total capacity approaching 1 million bopd; 
• faces a deficit twice what it forecast, Saudi Arabia says it will go to the debt market for the first time in a decade;
• President Obama explicitly states the US is no longer responsible for Saudi's security;
• the tea leaves clearly suggest it is US policy to move Iran to singular super-power status in the Mideast;
• announces this past week that it will issue $27 billion in bonds;
• has a shooting war in Yemen; terrorists on its borders;
• a $35 billion, 5-year program to increase crude oil production announced in 2012, has failed; and,
• it continues to give away its oil at $60/bbl (when it needs $100 oil to balance its budget).

That $100-oil figure is based on data from at least a year ago. After giving away its oil for the past year at $60/bbl, the $100-oil figure is probably understated.

So, now back to the Bloomberg story linked above, with my comments in brackets:

U.S. [bureaucrat-in-chief] Ashton Carter will soon head to [former US ally] Saudi Arabia to discuss ways to increase cooperation in the war against the [bad guys]. But there’s little indication he will be able to restore a vital relationship that's become riven with distrust in the last year, which would require him to reassure the Saudis on the very nature of the U.S. commitment to the kingdom and the region. [Psst: there is no commitment to either the kingdom or the region.]

Carter is slated to meet on April 20 in Riyadh with Mohammed Bin Salman al Saud, the 30-year-old deputy crown prince and defense minister who is widely believed to be in contention to succeed his father, King Salman. Carter’s visit will come one day ahead of President Barack Obama’s stop there for a leaders’ summit between the U.S. and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a follow-on to their meeting at Camp David last May.

For those who missed it, The Atlantic's cover story, in the April, 2016, issue, had the Obama Doctrine: with regard to the Mess in the Mideast (as opposed to the "Thrilla in Manila"): it's fairly simple. It can be summarized in five words.

"We're sitting this one out."

I assume President Obama will tell the Saudis he has done his part to ensure $200 oil in 2018 -- he banned oil exploration off the Atlantic Coast, and he's handing the presidential baton to Hillary Clinton who, in her efforts to ensure lead-free water in Flint, MI, will ban fracking. I can't make this stuff up.