McMurtrie shifted his bulk uneasily, making the folding chair groan. “Nice analogy.”

It was a stupid thing to say. I tried to retrieve with, “Come on… you guys’ve got laser deflectors, riot gas, electric prods, sonic janglers… it’d take a nuclear bomb to hurt him.”

McMurtrie’s face looked like a worried Gibraltar. “The Saudis have nukes.”

I gave up and leaned back in my chair. Which did not squeak. I’m lanky, but bony.

Up on the podium, under the TV lights, The Man was saying, “Naturally, if Saudi Arabia intervenes, then we will have to assure both the King and the Mullahs that the United States will remain neutral. We’ve sold arms freely to both sides. As long as they don’t threaten our oil supplies, we can continue to sell them munitions. Short of nuclear weaponry, of course.”

One of the women, Betty Turner from SGR, jumped to her feet and got the President’s nod. “Is that moral, selling arms to both sides?”

Halliday gave her his best grin. “No. It’s not. It’s not moral to sell weapons or munitions to anyone. But there is no morality in international politics. I found that out long ago. No morality at all. Except …” He let them all dangle on that for a moment. “Except to insure that the best interests of the United States are taken care of. We are still somewhat dependent on both Arabian and Iranian oil, especially since the Kuwait fields have been temporarily knocked out. In a few years, when we’ve reached self-sufficiency in energy, we can rethink our Middle Eastern policy. But for the present, if they want to have a war, they’re going to do it with our help or without. If we refuse to help them, they will refuse to sell us oil. It’s that simple.”

Turner opened her mouth for another question, but Halliday went on. “And if we refuse to deal with them, they’ll turn elsewhere for help, which is something I don’t think we want to see. And, when you get right down to it, if we refuse to deal with either side we will be, de facto, meddling in their internal affairs. As I’ve said before, our foreign policy is basically very simple… we are not the world’s policeman or the world’s pastor. We will do what is best for the United States.”