Posted by
Matt Rooney on Friday, December 01, 2006 12:13:07 AM
Sometimes,
as the popular idiom goes, it is difficult to see the woods for the
trees. I was having dinner with a group of Republican friends on
Tuesday, and when Iraq was brought up, I could not help but launch into
my patented tirade regarding the extent to which general reluctance to
fight a hard war had doomed the effort. Staying on message should be
worth something, even if it gives all of my friends indigestion.
Nevertheless, on the way back to the apartment, your favorite Colorado
blogger and mine Frank Morroni
once again hit the nail square on the head. In his unnervingly casual
style, Frank reminded me of the only real and permanent way to win a
war against fundamentalist Islam: pass comprehensive common sense energy reform.
Lest this answer's beautiful simplicity disturb your cynical sensibilities, consider the following 5 Step Rooney Rationale to reengage a serious discussion of energy policy:
1. We Can't End 1,500 Years of Muslim Infighting: Islamic
history is very complex, but here is a basic summary. Since the death
of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D., Muslims have been fighting over
who is the rightful heir to the Prophet's legacy. Is it or isn't it
Ali? It no longer matter, as Sunnis, Shias, Wahhabists,
Sufis and a greater devolution of various schools and minor sects
harbor ill-feelings that will not soon dissipate. This kind of hate,
hardened in the hearts of men by centuries of institutionalized
brainwashing and bad theology, will not easily find its resolution in
the arrival of western generals.
2. We Can't Always Clean-up Europe's Messes:
As with most international debacles, including two world wars, the
Balkans, Africa, Vietnam and the Middle East, the fingerprints of
European imperialist mischief can be easily discerned at every step.
Iraq is but the most recent of a long-line of poor sociopolitical
arrangements facilitated by European colonial ambitions. Perhaps Iraq
should never have been one country, but now it must be to
counterbalance Iran's insanity. That does not make Iraq any less
dysfunctional, comprised of multiple cross-cutting ethnicities and religions not cleanly divided by region. And I have yet to hear a practical plan of resettlement.
3. Half-Hearted Wars are Immoral:
Although I remain convinced that a general like MacArthur or Sherman,
allowed the proper strategic liberties, would have been able to clean
house in Iraq, such a situation failed to materialize. Now, with the
war spiraling out of control, western countries have lost the will to
fight on. If we are not going to fight to win, as Rush Limbaugh
recently asked, "Why wait to cut-and-run? Get the troops home for
Christmas." Amen.
4. Damn Right This is a War for Oil:
Whenever the professional protesters of America invoke the mantra "War
for Oil," how can I help but scream back "Damn right!" America is too
fat to ride bicycles, and I do not see anyone in congress walking to
work or working by candlelight. If we did not need regional fuel
reserves to power our economy, the Middle East would be little more
than a distant backwater that geography buffs alone could properly
identify on a map.
5. Energy Reform Makes the Middle East Irrelevant: An
America with an adequate number of refineries, extensive nuclear power
supplies, the license to drill ample oil reserves and actively making
strides toward cars that run on hydrogen cells is an America safer than
any administration could achieve with a million man army. President
Bush has made some form or another of this argument, but Congress
killed energy reform with the same recklessness exercised when spending
your federal tax dollars on state rodeos and bridges to nowhere. If the
wacko environmentalists love wildlife as much as they profess to, let
them dodge bullets in the desert. The rest of us would prefer to make
use of the bounty God gave us in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaskan Wildlife
Preserve, and other, more hospitable, domestic locales.
I hate
to acknowledge truth in anything Frank says. We are college roommates,
and I can not take the resulting ribbing between quarters of Madden
2006. However on this issue, Frank clearly sees the woods; both Frank
and I have come to realize that this country is indeed dangerously
distracted by a tactical argument that seems to ignore the larger
strategic elements relevant to our war against Muslim extremists.
Ironically, it is only appropriate that solid legislation is the
superior remedy to bombs, boots and ballistics for the world's greatest
democracy's most dire policy dilemma. Why kill your enemy when you can
bankrupt and starve them into irrelevance? Damn the trees! Full speed
ahead to American energy self-sufficiency.