My Introduction to Middle East Politics

I used to work for a major oil company. Before the oil bust in the mid 80's, we used to take engineers from other affiliates who came to work in the Gulf of Mexico as a training assignment. (Yes, those were the good ol' days when New Orleans and the GOM was the center of the offshore oil industry) One year we got a Saudi engineer from ARAMCO and I was appointed to act as his supervisor. During the welcome and familiarization discussion, I suggested that he may want to consult with one of our other engineers if he had any questions about New Orleans. This engineer happened to be Iranian. He immediately gave me the steely eye and said, "He is not Arab. He is Persian!" in a tone that made his feeling about Iranians in general very clear. That was my introduction to the politics of the middle east.