I know a boycott makes no economic sense–and might even be technically very hard or impossible to enforce for a variety of reasons, including that Saudi oil could probably be mixed into stuff we get from other foreign suppliers. But the Saudi market share in the U.S. must be worth something, since the Saudis have been trying to so desperately recently to increase it (I think the WashPost reported this the other day). If it would scare the heck out of the Saudis, even if it’s largely symbolic, wouldn’t a boycott be a nice point of leverage? I take the e-mailer’s point below about the risk of increased Chinese influence in the Middle East, but our “engagement” with the Saudis hasn’t gotten us very much lately….