Their oil, our weakness

Another very good essay by Victor Hanson Davis.

He says a lot about 'them', but more importantly, about 'us', and what we can do. He puts forward 3 fundamental policies: energy independence to drive down oil prices; no Middle East autocracy with nuclear weapons; support for democratic reform.

The most interesting parts are about our attitudes to action with regards to Islamic militancy, and about how it is our own dependence on the one resource the Middle East has that leads both to their extremism and to our pusillanimity.

Perhaps due to what might legitimately be called the lunacy principle ("these people are capable of doing anything at anytime"), the Muslim Middle East can insist on one standard of behavior for itself and quite another for others. It asks nothing of its own people and everything of everyone else's, while expecting no serious repercussions in the age of political correctness, in which affluent and leisured Westerners are frantic to avoid any disruption in their rather sheltered lives.

Rather, we should worry about the insatiable American demand that results in tight global supply for everyone, leading to high prices and petrobillions in the hands of otherwise-failed societies who use this largess for nefarious activities from buying nukes to buying off deserved censure from the West, India, and China. If the Middle East gets a pass on its terrorist behavior from the rest of the world, ultimately that exemption can be traced back to the voracious American appetite for imported oil, and its effects on everything from global petroleum prices to the appeasement of Islamic fascism.

(via Ninme)