If you believe we went to Iraq to liberate an oppressed people from an evil dictator, you might as well stop reading now. It's a nice side-effect; but if you think that was our reason for invading, you shouldn't negotiate your own contracts.

Assume for a minute that it's true we're getting uncomfortably close to running out of oil.

Suddenly everything makes sense. (Too much sense. The kind of ultra-sense made by conspiracy theories. But go with me here--I'm on a roll.)

Since the president is from an oil family, he'd be familiar with the looming crisis when the rest of us are only vaguely aware that at some point, exhaustible resources get exhausted.

Why go to Iraq? Because in the next few decades, as oil supplies dwindle, we want to be the ones who still have it. Why do it after 9-11? Because that was the opening we'd been waiting for. Invading Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. It was something we've had on our To Do list for a while now, and 9-11 gave us a blank check. We cashed it where we needed it. Why's it so important to get the oil? Because without it, everything goes phut. And we don't want to be the country that goes phut first.

I'm a political naif, so please, if you know better, share. The thing that scares me is how I relax a little, thinking there might actually be some sense here.

After all, if oil supplies were to dwindle, I would want us to be the ones who still had it. Just taking a shot here, doesn't Russia have its own oil fields? What if ours ran dry first?

I'm sure I'm wrong.

[Best of the Blog]