Jim Castagnera: Bush, Gore and Oil
[Jim Castagnera is the associate provost/associate counsel at Rider University and a 2007-08 Fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.]
Last Friday I envied Al Gore. He woke up the co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for his work on global warming. People may still chuckle that in 2000 he came close to claiming he invented the Internet. No one can laugh at him now. The Peace Prize comes to the former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate on top of an Oscar for his film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which has awakened millions of us to the threats posed by climate change. Yes, 2007 is a banner year for Al Gore.
Contrast Gore’s great year to President George W. Bush’s reversal of fortunes. In 2000 a conservative Supreme Court awarded Mr. Bush the presidency of the United States, climaxing the most closely contested presidential election in U.S. history. Then in 2001, the lackluster start to W’s first term was eclipsed by the blinding light of the World Trade Center’s twin towers ablaze with burning jet fuel. For more than 3,000 Americans, September 11th was fatally tragic. For a president whose legitimacy was still questioned by half of all voters, Nine-Eleven was a call to greatness.
How the worm has turned in half a dozen years. While Mr. Bush chases his approval ratings down into the black hole of an unpopular war, Mr. Gore basks in the glory of two world-beating awards in a single year. Talk of a Gore reprise in the ’08 presidential sweepstakes abounds, though he coyly continues to be non-committal.
I suspect there are those who are gloating over Gore’s triumph and Bush’s political demise. And, yes, an Oscar and a Nobel seem suitable consolation prizes for having been gypped out of the White House, while W may be getting just what he deserves for having mired us in the most mismanaged conflict since Vietnam. Yes, indeed, it looks as if Al Gore gets the last laugh. Many, no doubt, are laughing along with him.
But wait a minute. What’s really at stake here? On one hand, Mr. Bush’s troubles in Iraq are shared by all of us, whether we voted for him or against him, and whether we now support or condemn the war. The same can be said of Mr. Gore’s inconvenient truth. If global warming is a fact --- and it seems irrefutable --- and if that fact portends more and fiercer Katrinas --- among the many unpleasant prospects of a warmer world --- then it, too, is a problem we all share.
These two human catastrophes have something else in common, too. Regardless of what was said, and continues to be said, about the Iraq War being a front in the War on Terror, the invasion was, and is, all about oil. We Yanks depend upon foreign oil, especially Middle Eastern oil. To ensure a stable, affordable supply of the black gold, our national interest lies in holding at least one major Mid-East nation firmly under our national influence. Despite rumblings of an Iranian invasion, at the end of the day Iran is more than we can chew. Saudi Arabia is a false friend; after all, most of the Nine-Eleven terrorists were Saudis. When the House of Saud someday collapses like a house of cards, Mecca and Medina will make it impossible for the U.S. to occupy Riyadh.
In other words, Iraq was the best choice among the big players in the region for the U.S. to control. That Iraqi resistance was underestimated and the occupation badly bungled doesn’t change the fundamental geo-political soundness of the decision to invade. Our unquenchable thirst for oil compelled it.
Oil also is a major culprit contributing to Gore’s inconvenient truth. Just as our unquenchable thirst for petroleum sends our soldiers into harm’s way, so too does it fill our atmosphere with the pollutants creating the greenhouse effect. In a weird way, Al Gore and George Bush are the two sides of the same coin of the realm. As Gore warns of global warming, Bush works to keep our tanks full of the very fuel that is the major cause of our coming inconvenience.
While we are free to applaud Mr. Gore and condemn Mr. Bush --- because, yes, despite the War on Terror and the Inconvenient Truth, this remains a free country at least for now --- we have no reason to laugh.
Last Friday I envied Al Gore. He woke up the co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for his work on global warming. People may still chuckle that in 2000 he came close to claiming he invented the Internet. No one can laugh at him now. The Peace Prize comes to the former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate on top of an Oscar for his film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which has awakened millions of us to the threats posed by climate change. Yes, 2007 is a banner year for Al Gore.
Contrast Gore’s great year to President George W. Bush’s reversal of fortunes. In 2000 a conservative Supreme Court awarded Mr. Bush the presidency of the United States, climaxing the most closely contested presidential election in U.S. history. Then in 2001, the lackluster start to W’s first term was eclipsed by the blinding light of the World Trade Center’s twin towers ablaze with burning jet fuel. For more than 3,000 Americans, September 11th was fatally tragic. For a president whose legitimacy was still questioned by half of all voters, Nine-Eleven was a call to greatness.
How the worm has turned in half a dozen years. While Mr. Bush chases his approval ratings down into the black hole of an unpopular war, Mr. Gore basks in the glory of two world-beating awards in a single year. Talk of a Gore reprise in the ’08 presidential sweepstakes abounds, though he coyly continues to be non-committal.
I suspect there are those who are gloating over Gore’s triumph and Bush’s political demise. And, yes, an Oscar and a Nobel seem suitable consolation prizes for having been gypped out of the White House, while W may be getting just what he deserves for having mired us in the most mismanaged conflict since Vietnam. Yes, indeed, it looks as if Al Gore gets the last laugh. Many, no doubt, are laughing along with him.
But wait a minute. What’s really at stake here? On one hand, Mr. Bush’s troubles in Iraq are shared by all of us, whether we voted for him or against him, and whether we now support or condemn the war. The same can be said of Mr. Gore’s inconvenient truth. If global warming is a fact --- and it seems irrefutable --- and if that fact portends more and fiercer Katrinas --- among the many unpleasant prospects of a warmer world --- then it, too, is a problem we all share.
These two human catastrophes have something else in common, too. Regardless of what was said, and continues to be said, about the Iraq War being a front in the War on Terror, the invasion was, and is, all about oil. We Yanks depend upon foreign oil, especially Middle Eastern oil. To ensure a stable, affordable supply of the black gold, our national interest lies in holding at least one major Mid-East nation firmly under our national influence. Despite rumblings of an Iranian invasion, at the end of the day Iran is more than we can chew. Saudi Arabia is a false friend; after all, most of the Nine-Eleven terrorists were Saudis. When the House of Saud someday collapses like a house of cards, Mecca and Medina will make it impossible for the U.S. to occupy Riyadh.
In other words, Iraq was the best choice among the big players in the region for the U.S. to control. That Iraqi resistance was underestimated and the occupation badly bungled doesn’t change the fundamental geo-political soundness of the decision to invade. Our unquenchable thirst for oil compelled it.
Oil also is a major culprit contributing to Gore’s inconvenient truth. Just as our unquenchable thirst for petroleum sends our soldiers into harm’s way, so too does it fill our atmosphere with the pollutants creating the greenhouse effect. In a weird way, Al Gore and George Bush are the two sides of the same coin of the realm. As Gore warns of global warming, Bush works to keep our tanks full of the very fuel that is the major cause of our coming inconvenience.
While we are free to applaud Mr. Gore and condemn Mr. Bush --- because, yes, despite the War on Terror and the Inconvenient Truth, this remains a free country at least for now --- we have no reason to laugh.