Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, and let’s have an unprecedented wartime tax cut and shrink our armed forces. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, but let’s send just enough troops to topple Saddam — and never control Iraq’s borders, its ammo dumps or its looters. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, but rather than bring Democrats and Republicans together in a national unity war coalition, let’s use the war as a wedge issue to embarrass Democrats, frighten voters and win elections. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism — which is financed by our own oil purchases — but let’s not do one serious thing about ending our oil addiction.
One area where I tend to disagree with a lot of others is the role that oil plays in our foreign policy. I think it plays a huge role, but that it's more complicated than most people realize. The way in which the West has historically gone about securing access to oil in the ME is the root cause of a lot of the hatred towards us - but we don't necessarily solve this problem by becoming energy independent.
