As he always does, columnist Steve Chapman demolishes the favorite bipartisan slogan of "energy independence," which is always represented as easily within our grasp through pixie dust and duct tape.
Quoth Chapman: "The end of President Bush’s time in office is still 14 months away, but already, I can guarantee two things. First, the next president will be elected on a promise to lead the nation to energy independence. Second, the promise won’t be kept."
Meanwhile, if you want more background, see my twenty-question primer on "energy independence" here.
I don't think there's any real desire for energy independence in Washington. I think it's a fraud. It's a deliberate fraud. And it's truly appalling that Republicans have gone along with this garbage. The idea of constructing windmills all across the fruited plain is disgraceful. Likewise Ethanol. Instead of seeing the price of foodstuffs soar, why not use the resources God has given us. Only Washington would consider using Corn for internal combustion engines.
Energy independence would take away gobs of cash from the petro-kingdoms. Which means they wouldn't be making huge defense purchases, and other purchases as well. Think of the number of Banks that do business with the petro-kingdoms. Think of the insurance underwriting, and the re-insuring. Think of the number of people who wouldn't be selling product and services to them. The petro-kingdoms wouldn't be purchasing stuff from Boeing, they wouldn't be doing as much business with Haliburton, just to take two more prominent companies as an example. Think of the public relations firms, the lobbyists, the lawyers, the big time firms in D.C. which would lose a significant income stream, were the income stream cut off at its source, which means cutting off the oil revenue. Firms like Baker, Boggs wouldn't be swinging those massive deals, now would they, were we to put the economic screws to the petro-kingdoms.
The amount of money that the house of Saud tosses around Washington has created a world within a world. Outside the Beltway, ordinary Americans are livid about $3.00 plus per gallon, with prospects of gas rising over $4.00 per gallon sometime soon. Ordinary Americans are increasingly aware, thus anxious about the sheer amount of money the petro-kingdoms, and especially the Iranians are raking in. More and more Americans understand that WE'RE the ones effectively paying for their jihad, we're the ones providing the financial foundations for the petro-kingdoms, we're the ones underwriting the entirety of their "economy." Economy in quotation marks because absent oil revenue, they've NO economy, which a recent UN study confirmed, when it concluded Finland and Spain have larger economies than all of the Arab countries combined. For the Mideast, absent oil, there's nothing.
Washington doesn't want to see the gravy train inside the Beltway end. Too many fortunes are predicated upon business with creepy types from the Mideast.
Robert Baer, former CIA, wrote about that this in his second book, which dealt with the pervasive corruption in Washington.
The United States sits on a mountain of coal, rising between two oceans. If we wanted to be energy independent, we'd BE energy independent by now. Moreover, not just would we be independent, but we would have also insulated close allies like Japan, Australia, Canada and Great Britain from the wild swings in the price of crude, all because of the insane pathologies that swirl about and through the Mideast. If we really wanted this done, it would have been done during the Clinton years. And if Bush really wanted it done, it would have effectively been accomplished during the waning months of his first term. But Bush is deceiving the American people, as have so many others before him. He delivered the ritual references to energy independence in State of the Unions, but then privately assures dirtballs in the Mideast that he meant none of it. Typical Bush. Typical Washington. Typical squalour.
Washington is placing their own lobbyist interests before the welfare and national security of the United States. Take a look at the number of Americans who had a finger in the pie on that proposed Dubai deal, Bob Dole, Madelaine Albright, et al, it was like a "Who's Who" of recent American politics.
There's absolutely no reason to continue the relationship with "Saudi" Arabia, nor with the petro-kingdoms. What we need is to cut ourselves clear of their oil; what we need to do is cut clear as well much of the West as well. We need to throw the petro-kingdoms back to their former economic basket-case status.
Impoverish them.
Clean out their bank accounts.
Declare economic war upon them. Make them pay for waging jihad against The West, against the United States.
Just go buy an electric car. You'll show them.