Well, That Didn’t Really Seem Like A War For Oil At All
Well, we’ve finally made Iraq safe for Theocracy, I mean Democracy, and the final U.S. combat troops will be out of the country in a few weeks. Contrary to what I’ve heard for years, our involvement didn’t really seem like a war for oil. In 2002, the year before we invaded, the average price in the U.S. for a gallon of gas was $1.25. As of today, it’s $3.27.
The truth is no one really knows why George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq or why Congress rubber-stamped the decision. Saddam Hussein played no part in 9/11, and as far as I can tell, none of the terrorists were Iraqis. Hussein was also no friend of Al Qaeda, and as a Sunni Muslim in a majority Shia land, he feared Islamic fundamentalism. Prior to his invasion of Kuwait, he was also on the U.S.’s payroll for nearly a decade.
I’m starting to get the sneaking suspicion our government has no real strategic plan. We lash out like a drunken toddler at any perceived threat, but since there’s no one to put us in time-out, we just keep blundering forward. We have also proven that we can’t solve our own problems, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to impose the same dysfunctional system on the rest of the world.
As we approach another presidential election, how about we take a step back from the world-stage and catch our breath. Our economy is in free-fall, our infrastructure is literally falling apart, and Americans seem more divided now than at any time in recent memory. Let’s agree to spend the next ten years sorting out our own problems before we decide to fix the rest of the world. Like all failed relationships, a little time apart will do us both good.
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