A Reader Requested Opinion

In a post yesterday, I linked to a Kurt Vonnegut piece titled “Cold Turkey," wherein Vonnegut alluded to, among other things, an American addiction to fossil fuels.  After reading the post, a reader inquired, via the comments section, if I would dismiss the essence of an article by its title.  Specifically, the reader provided a link to an article with the title “Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy: Procuring the Rest of the World’s Oil." I replied that I could not dismiss the article, until I had at least read the article.  Well, I’ve read the article, and here’s what I think.

The first sentence of the article in question follows.

"When first assuming office in early 2001, President George W. Bush’s top foreign policy priority was not to prevent terrorism or to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction--or any of the other goals he espoused later that year following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Rather, it was to increase the flow of petroleum from suppliers abroad to U.S. markets."

When I read the above sentence, I Googled up this phrase: “Bush’s top foreign policy in 2001.” Here is the result. The first option Google provides, leads to a CNN transcript, from January 14, 2001, which includes questions and comments from CNN employees Brian Nelson and Kate Snow, and comments from David Albright, Donald Rumsfield, William Cohen, Sandy Berger, and Mark Strauss.  Within that transcript, there is one question about oil, posed by Brian Nelson and answered by Mark Strauss, but the remainder of the transcript covers concerns about Iraq, a mention of Israel and Palestine and the MidEast in general, and missile defense also warrants a mention.

Now, don’t think this means I accept whatever a politician, or talking head, spews through the media pipe.  Far from it.  But I do think it means that right out of the gate, the article in question is a bit farfetched.  For example, the article attempts to bolster the weakness of the first sentence, above, by quoting Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.

"America faces a major energy supply crisis over the next two decades,” Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham told a National Energy Summit on March 19, 2001. “The failure to meet this challenge will threaten our nation’s economic prosperity, compromise our national security, and literally alter the way we lead our lives."

Granted, there is some truth to Abraham’s statement, but once you weed out the buzzing scare words, such as “major,” “crisis,” “threaten,” “alter the way we lead our lives,” I would hardly use the statement as supporting documentation for the article’s assumption that for Bush and Cheney it’s all about the oil.

The article continues on by attempting to bind many initiatives, such as conservation and U.S. foreign oil interests, to their initial assumption.  Areas discussed include the Persian Gulf, West Africa, Latin America, and the Caspian Sea Basin.  In each reference, I think the piece stretches what has been said by the government, to fit their overwrought assumption.

With that said, let me say that what I did read, increased my knowledge of the United States’ energy concerns.  Though I would not go so far as to say that the knowledge I gained led me to the conclusion which the article lobbies for, which is that Bush and Cheney have attempted to tie the United States’ energy requirements, to the United States’ security needs.  But that’s just my opinion.

As an aside, here is a link to the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) Board of Directors & Collaborators, their word not mine, who helped sponsor the article under discussion here and published by the Foreign Policy in Focus think tank.

Read the article, with a grain of salt, but think it through for yourself, and then go fill up your SUV or car with gas.

Posted by on 05/13 at 09:03 AM

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