Another TPM Reader chimes in on our running debate …
Of course oil is the motive, not just oil in iraq but in iran and saudi and kuwait. democracy is the sales pitch; it’s not much of one since there’s no intent to have democracy in saudi or kuwait but it’s the sale pitch. some salesmen believe such pitches. but what follows is a national commitment to dependence on oil and a refusal to reengineer energy to stop global warming. this is perhaps in the long run the single worst aspect of the whole mad crazy cruel plan.
The election of 08 is really about this plan versus some alternative. Hillary unfortunately is pretty much aligned with the bush plan, although she doesnt want to say so. she would not withdraw all the troops and would stay in the region forever.
This really is the big picture. I broach it in today’s episode of TPMtv, which will be coming up later this morning. And I’m hoping we’ll be able to get into it more in next week’s episodes. We’re fast approaching the time when the time required to organize an orderly departure from Iraq is longer than the time left in the Bush presidency. I’m not saying we let the dying continue in January 2009 and not try to do anything about it. I’m just trying to focus on the fact that as we try to end the president’s disastrous policies now with the very blunt implements of congressional power we need to also be thinking of a broader strategy for what comes after Bush. Because getting out of Iraq is only one part of the puzzle, in some ways not even that big a part. We can’t get back to where we were before the invasion. A whole series of dynamics have been let loose that can’t be bottled back up just by getting out. Troop deployment in Iraq, combatting terrorism, the organization of our economy are all part of one puzzle. And the reader’s right. That’s the puzzle that’s on the table in 2008. So who’s talking about it? Who’s addressing the issue at that level?
