Absolute Power

Mohammed bin Salman is modernizing a stubbornly premodern kingdom, Graeme Wood wrote in April. He has also eliminated rivals and critics, creating a climate of fear without precedent in Saudi Arabia’s history.

Graeme Wood’s article is the best argument I’ve read in some time for why the West needs to wean itself off oil. Mohammed bin Salman is very scary, and holds great power only because of our oil addiction. The prospect of him being in power for 40 to 50 years is truly chilling, and should be all the incentive we need to move to renewable energy now.

Thomas Cannon

Leicester, N.C.

No sooner had I read Graeme Wood’s fascinating article on absolute power in Saudi Arabia than I saw the news that 81 people had been executed in one day in the country.

Wood concludes his article with great care and skill, yet suggests that the U.S. must find a modus vivendi to work with the crown prince. Is this possible?

Frank Vogl Author, The Enablers

Washington, D.C.

I have read The Atlantic for years. While I appreciate that your publication often presents a differing perspective from my own, I find the nature of this interview unconscionable.

I would love to know why, in your opinion, MBS agreed to cooperate for this article. Do you think he likes the attention? Do you think he knew his team could cherry-pick pieces of praise from it? Do you think he thought it could whitewash his tarnished legacy? It seems to me that it did all three.

Alex Chapman

New Orleans, La.

There are no words for what The Atlantic has done here. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that MBS approved the gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia has an unelected, authoritarian regime that brutally suppresses dissent. The status of women there remains subordinate, and the recent “reforms” hardly even qualify as cosmetic. Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen has created one of the world’s most horrific humanitarian disasters. MBS has not condemned Vladimir Putin’s slaughter of innocent Ukrainian civilians. There is no excuse for coddling authoritarian murderers.

Gary Stewart

Laguna Beach, Calif.

I’ve never written a letter to the editor before, but felt compelled to after reading Graeme Wood’s recent article “Of Course Journalists Should Interview Autocrats,” written in response to criticism of his April cover story. Both this article and Mr. Wood’s original profile of MBS were really important pieces of journalism that informed me about a world leader and an accused assassin who has largely fallen out of the news as outrage over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder has ebbed.

That’s why I was disappointed to read that Mr. Wood’s article had caused a bit of a stir among Western journalists. He was 100 percent correct when he wrote in his follow-up article, “Any publication bragging that it is too sanctimonious to accept an invitation to interview the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is admitting it cannot cover Saudi Arabia.” Although Mr. Wood’s words may have been used by Saudi propagandists and caused controversy here in the West, I

am proud of both him and The Atlantic for interviewing MBS.

Eric Wells

Miami, Fla.

It was amazing to me how much character was revealed by the quotations that Graeme Wood chose to put in his frightening portrait of Saudi Arabia’s leader without ever making a statement of his own opinion.

Bruce C. Miller

Alexandria, Va.