As a people Americans just use machines and really have no idea about why we need to oil them. The American people will back this administration if it attacks Iraq if it is presented as a need for Iraqi oil.  The Op-Ed page in the NY Times today has its top articles by two Senators and Tom Friedman on this very subject.

Mr. Friedman calls it like it is.  It is the price of oil . . . . ! What he is saying is that we will probably never go back to the days when we drove civilian vehicles that were as large as the Hummers some conspicuous consumers prefer today.  Oil no longer brings in a measly $2.00 a barrel.  It now is $6.00 a barrel and could go up to $60.00 a barrel if we don’t watch our steps towards a war that will only please the oil rich Arabs who can jack up the prices no matter what happens. Mr. Friedman thinks the price will stay where it is.  No matter what happens they will still produce the oil we need for the machines whose insides we have no idea at all about. These machines need oil to make them go – to keep them from wearing out – to feed their need for energy to operate – and to keep entire subsidiary industries from suddenly disappearing and thus ushering in the end of civilization as we know it.

The Senators see it differently.  They see it as a debate within the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate.  Joe Biden, Jr. and Dick Lugar see the problem of oil as the problem of how to deal with Iraq.  They see three issues.  First, does Iraq actually pose a threat to the security of the United States? We know that he is the chief war monger in his area, that he has fostered and abetted terror campaigns and supported the insane self-destruction of Palestinians.  But they, the two Senators, want to debate this.

Second, the two Senators want to talk about measures to deal with Saddam Hussein and possible problems there would be if we were to tentatively take steps to use military action against him.  How much wider than just Iraq would such steps take us?

The third issue Biden and Lugar want the Senate and the people of the United States to think about and talk a lot about is what will happen after we take Saddam Hussein out by making war against him.  Rather than just think about the consequences of destroying Iraq and its oil producing capabilities we need to think about who will replace him and will any action we take be more intelligent and successful than the mess we made in Afghanistan.

That is the problem with Democracies.  They take a lot of time to deliberate while the need is for action right now!  The Senators’ plan is to lay out the debate.  The Friedman analysis is to probe and see all the players the Senators should know about and talk about. Machines need oil and we probably shouldn’t attack Iraq.