The Energy President
The term “energy security” gets tossed around liberally (small “L”, of course) regardless of the political leanings of the tosser. Barack Obama’s website, for instance, states: “For all of our military might and economic dominance, America’s Achilles heel is the oil we cannot live without.” John McCain says in a video on his site: “When you look around the world at where our oil comes from, from Venezuela, to Nigeria, to Russia, to Iran, to all these places … it’s a national security issue.” (The Bush administration’s Energy Department, for that matter, offers “20-in-10,” or, twenty goals aimed at improving energy security in the next 10 years).
With everybody in agreement that the issue deserves to be grappled with, how can one distinguish among the grapplers? That’s where the latest CFR.org Issue Tracker on Energy Policy comes in. Curious about Hillary Clinton’s stance on coal gassification? What about Mitt Romney on biofuels? Even the more opaque Rudy Giuliani has an energy footprint.
Now, a few from the Inbox:
The blog Afristocrat commented on the notion of a Barack Obama-Colin Powell ticket, which we wrote about on Monday:
“…Is Senator Obama ~ who really has nothing to lose at this point ~ possessed of the raw gutsiness to double his political bets and altogether pre-empt the entire question of America’s willingness to accept a man like himself in the role of CEO, by tapping General Powell as his running mate and teasing the American electorate with the eye-popping prospect of two Black rulers in the West Wing at the same time? Indeed, may the answer to that age-old conundrum not lie on the far side of so brazen a display of sheer political sass?”
Regarding Lionel Beehner’s Backgrounder, “Iran’s involvement in Iraq,” Klaus Boschen writes, in part:
Assuming that the alleged ordinance is indeed flowing from Iran to the Taliban it is hard to understand why the Iranian government would aid a proxy of Pakistan that has been an historical enemy of Iran. A more likely explanation would be that criminal networks involved in the drug trade are exchanging weapons for drugs possibly in conjunction with corrupt money motivated elements of the Iranian military. There are too many negative aspects of a strategic motive for the Iranian government to aid the Taliban. Assuming that Pakistan is still covertly aiding the Taliban further aid is going to allow the Taliban to keep flowing drugs into Iran which is a huge problem for the Iranian government. The Taliban could very well become as successful as the insurgency in Iraq in it’s destabilization operations which directly conflict with Iran’s attempt to help build Afghanistan infrastructure. Insofar as Iran is attempting to increase it’s sphere of influence aiding the Taliban is likely to cause the Afghan government to lessen it’s ties with Iran once it becomes aware of this operation.
This is a matter of utmost importance to figure out. If in fact the Iranian government is attempting a strategy of “managed chaos” it is important to know if this represents a conflict within the ruling factions of the Iranian government. If this is a matter of corrupt and criminal elements trading guns for drugs knowing this would lessen the arguments of Cheney and Lieberman for a military strike against Iran. As horrible as the consequences of the invasion of Iraq have been a military strike against Iran might well have even worse consequences. It is plausible to me that the Iranian government is aiding Shite militias in Iraq and Iran might well have elements in it’s government that are willing to see a military conflict with the U.S. thinking that this would leave both their faction and Iran ultimately in a better position. I would like to think that these elements are not in a dominant position with the government and that a lessening of hostile rhetoric and opening channels of communication would likewise lessen their influence. The hope of Lieberman and Cheney that one more war will make everything go right is a hopeless and dangerous delusion and if implemented will leave the U.S. horribly damaged in ways that may go beyond even my pessimistic imagination.
