‘Imbalances of Power

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Date Line May 21, 2008

In a May 21st Op-Ed piece (‘Imbalances of Power’), Thomas L Friedman wrote, “It baffles me that President Bush would rather go to Saudi Arabia twice in four months and beg the Saudi king for an oil price break than ask the American people to drive 55 miles an hour, buy more fuel-efficient cars or accept a carbon tax or gasoline tax that might actually help free us from what he called our ‘addiction to oil.’”

But is it baffling to you? After all, you have read my musings and are aware that the name of the game is to cause rapid consumption of oil. If Bush can get more pumped, without any cutbacks un consumption, there is a possibility that he can live to see the final war.

What “final war”? HEY! You read it in previous blogs – this is the war that will be won by the people who have the only remaining oil supplies. OK. We all know that the Bush regime and its Evangelical Right-wing Conservative backers do NOT want America to be the one with the last drops of oil.

We know that because Ronald Reagan demonstrated it when he removed the solar collectors from the Whitehouse. Thereafter, it was a Republican Right-wing Congress which played games with fuel consumption standards. Think about it! In Europe cars get 35mpg and have since the 1960's – think the Ford Cortina and BMW of that period; and yes, I said “Ford”, the American car company which seems to have so much trouble surviving its native market.

When the 1974 oil embargo caused fuel lines here, Ford had the best selling car in England – the GT luxury model was better than anything on the road, with the possible exception of the BMW. Aside from price (BMW was far more costly), the only difference between the two cars was the hood latch.

Consider how big auto has killed itself. At today’s oil prices, General Motors – once the controlling force in America (Think Little Abner’s General Bullmoose) can be bout with five days of OPEC production. The nation with the oil can, in fifteen years, buy the military might of America. The Saudis will be that power – if the kowtowing of the Bush family serves as a yardstick.

When has a president had to beg another country for resources? When did America become Nazi Germany scrounging for oil and gas in the burnt out vehicles of its enemies?

The answer is, of course, when the Right-wing managed to subvert all that was America and convert it into this preeminent self-destructive, apocalyptic era seeking, third rate power. And yes, we are now a third rate power – a nation dependent on the third world for all the trappings of our extravagant lifestyle.

It is time for serious change. We can expect an obstructionist Right-wing and Democratic fifth columnists to continue their work. But it is now or never. Now, the next three presidential terms, are the controlling force in where the world will be – or if the world will be – when our grandchildren should be reaching maturity.

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