On War, Bumperstickers, and Denial.

Recently I received an email from a random visitor to this blog. It was unpleasant, as email from right wingers often is. This blog's opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq made the emailer mad as hell. Denial runs deep on the Right. But it also runs deep on the Left.
Like it or not the only reasonable conclusion one can come to about the Iraq invasion is this: IT IS ABOUT CONTROL OF OIL. The Left resists this with the same ferocity as the Right.
Nevertheless: There is a lot of it in the region and not nearly enough over here. At least not enough for the way we live now. This is also true about the coming conflict with Iran. And not for nothing I must admit: if this is the reason we have set up camp in Iraq at great cost - and it is the reason - I loath the war, but understand it. The war was the worst of the options, and it has failed, with blowback that is only now starting - but it MAKES SENSE. Unless and until liberals clearly understand that these wars are resource wars we will continue to scream, holler, blog, and eyeroll at the Right - and we will continue having leaders that cannot present and make the hard choices to and for the American people. The fact is this: we need and use much more oil than we have.

The real and brutal choice in the post peak oil world:

A. Go and get the oil we need - China being our main competitor for it.

Or B. Change utterly and completely the way we live. The President simply made the first choice. Eventually any President would have made the same choice. The current system demands it.

WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER bumperstickers are everywhere on cars in Los Angeles. If we want to live like we do now forever - war is very much the answer. NO BLOOD FOR OIL bumperstickers on SUVs in Los Angeles is a blatant form of denial.

What we need on the Left is leadership that can explain the real situation we find ourselves in. America is dependent on the kindness of strangers. When we cannot depend on the kindness of the house of Saud, or Iraq, or nutjob Mullahs WAR IS THE HORRIBLE AND LOGICAL ANSWER.

Unless we change.