Is This War?

Understanding a little about economics, to my mind, is pivotal to the long term stability of our republic. It is the electorate that must raise the level of discourse in a democracy in the 21st century. Politicians will jockey for position so long as they believe that the electorate can be manipulated by dogma, rhetoric and sound bites. And, the politicians will continue to pursue this strategy until the electorate proves that it no longer works.

The history of the energy policy in the United States since the end of the Second World War is an excellent study of how politics made a difficult situation, our need for energy independence, much worse.

At the end of the Second World War, the large shipping companies that had been carrying oil for the Allies during the war, took their track records as carriers of oil to the banks in New York city and borrowed money to build larger and then ever larger tankers to transport oil from the Middle East to the United States. The importance of oil to win the war does not even have to be debated. It is a given. Had Nazi Germany secured the sources of oil for their war effort, the out come of the Second World War would have been quite different. Oil as far back as the beginning of the World War was known as a commodity that could determine not only victory in a war, but the survival of a country. Where were the long term planners in the United States at this time? During the Eisenhower administration, the great Interstate Highways that run through our nation east and west, north and south, were begun. Economists knew that the country would grow in population as the baby boomers were arriving every seven seconds across the country. With the increase in traffic, consumption of oil and the products made from oil would also rise. And yet, more and more of our supply of oil came from areas of the world that were much less stable than our own. And, for years, 1945-73, there were no serious problems obtaining that supply of oil.

By 1973, at the time of the first oil embargo, to the creation of OPEC, our nation did little if anything to protect its people from dependency upon imported oil. In fact, laws were passed to suppress our development of new oil sources and refinery capacity here in the United States. Today, we find ourselves at the mercy of producing nations that would like nothing better than see the United States brought down a peg or two. We, through our lack of leadership, have become our own worst enemy. We can blame OPEC and Saudi Arabia for not increasing oil production in the face of an ever growing world wide demand, but in truth, we need to look at ourselves. We have failed to protect "the pipeline" that oil is to our economy.

There is a great deal of suffering going on across this great nation, but there will not be any quick fixes despite the sound bites that we hear on the news. Americans are going to put intellectual pressure on their elected officials by voting out those that can not see the pain and suffering that is occurring across this nation. Blaming the Saudis or the Chinese or for that matter anyone else, but ourselves for the position we find ourselves in today is nothing more than scape goating the problem. Every country has a duty to look out for the well being of their people. We can not expect others nations to look out for us.

Now the big oil companies are going back to Iraq after 36 years of not being in Iraq to sign oil contracts with the Ministry of Interior. So much for saving the world for democracy.

A change in our energy policy will not produce immediate results as far as the price of gas is concerned, but it would send a strong signal to the rest of the world that we in the United States are serious about taking responsibility for the future of our energy needs. In essence, this is war. We must secure that oil "pipeline" for our own survival. The days when we thought that importing oil was no more than a tanker logistical problem are over. Stay tuned