Attack Iraq?

Nah, How about attacking our dependence on foreign oil?

Mike Lauterbach

George W. Bush is now listening to others (or so he says) so perhaps now would be a good time to talk about a solution to the “Iraq problem.” But the real solution might not be the one he and his crowd of Texas oilmen would like.

I’d like to suggest a War on Dependence on Foreign Oil. Maybe one of his PR folks could make that rhyme a little better (probably one of our PR majors could) but the concept is sound.

The fact is, this proposed war in the Middle East isn’t really all about the threat of some kind of attack on the U.S. or some other nation. It’s about our supply of oil – protecting it and, for the cynical, making a grab for more. Is Saddam really going to nuke Washington or New York? He knows what we’d do to him and his country, not to mention the problems he’d have getting it here. Israel? The same problems for him still apply. The only realistic fear is that he might use it as a big club while he makes a grab for – you guessed it – our oil, maybe in Kuwait again.

If we could reduce our oil consumption, we could leave Saddam (and the rest of the Arab world) alone to solve their own problems, in their own ways. Modernization is not coming easily to the Arab world, and it’s certainly not helping us or them out when we (with our presence or our overt actions, we can argue about that) give them a scapegoat for all the problems that come with making a leap into the first world. The war in Afghanistan threatened moderate governments in Pakistan and Egypt, and continued U.S. involvement will only add fuel to the fire.

But reducing (and hopefully, eventually, eliminating) our dependence on that oil isn’t going to be easy, which might be why nobody wants to talk about it. Part of it is technology – we don’t have a viable alternative yet to the internal combustion engine. But another, larger part is within our immediate reach.

First, America has to do a better job with mass transit. We spent billions each year maintaining the Interstate highway system, we pay for new runways and terminals, and yet we expect Amtrak to build and maintain a national network with almost no support. Large cities like Denver and our own Twin Cities have no light rail system at all. A couple cents a gallon gas tax specifically for projects like these would go a long way.

And if we must have cars, tougher emissions standards must become the law everywhere. If more laws lead to the kind of innovation we’ve seen as the result of California’s, the world will be a better place for having them. A government cash back bonus for folks who buy new vehicles that pass a certain emissions test is also worth looking at.

It may be too late for the War on Dependence on Foreign Oil to have any effect on whether or not we go to war in Iraq, but long after whatever we do in Iraq is written in the history books the same kind of problems we’ve faced in the last year will continue to manifest themselves. And then we’ll be prepared.

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