Atlantic Free Press - Hard Truths for Hard Times - Both Ways

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Atlantic Free Press was launched in September 2006 by Dutch-Canadian R.G. Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands and American Expatriate Chris Floyd of Oxford, UK.

Brick Ogden, an American Expatriate in Amsterdam has been a key supporter of this project.

Assistant Editor Canadian Chris Cook hails from Victoria, British Columbia and Senior Writer Paul William Roberts is based in Toronto - but often on the road.

The mission of AF Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried public discourse today. AF Press provides a new venue for disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.

Both Ways - Kunstler

Written by James Howard Kunstler
Monday, 18 June 2007
by James Kunstler It seems to me you can call the situation in Iraq a lot of things, but it's not a war. Not at this point, anyway. Call it an unsuccessful nation-building project, a failed occupation, a botched policing job, a monkey-in-the-middle clusterfuck. All the US political factions, from left to right, do the public a disservice by calling it a war, because it misrepresents what we're doing there. We're involved in Iraq because we don't want to begin thinking about modifying our behavior at home. We are desperate to preserve our access to Middle East oil because that is the only way we can keep running our society the way we're used to running it. Mostly, we don't want to face the tragic misinvestments we've made in the infrastructure of happy motoring, and we don't want to face the inconvenient truth that there really isn't any combination of alt.fuels that will permit us to keep running all the cars the way we like to run them. Either we keep getting the oil or say goodbye to the American Dream Version 2.K The public has now decided that this nation's primary mission is to find some magic way to keep the cars running on a fuel other than gasoline. Everyone from the greenest greenies to the most medieval-minded Kansas Republican senator has joined in this collective wish. They are certain to be disappointed. All the Priuses in the world will not avail to save the Drive-In Utopia. The public will learn painfully what Iraq is all about. Every time somebody blames the politicians for this predicament, I'm reminded that the politicians are actually doing a fine job of representing what their constituents want. What they want is to not change their behavior. Not even the science and technology folks want to think about changing our behavior. They just want to find new ways to continue the old behavior. They're invested in the triumphal effort to come up with a happy motoring rescue remedy. Their techno-cred is on the line. They all want to be the first kid in their housing subdivision to run a car on dark matter. So, we've gone to Iraq on the quixotic mission to stabilize-and-pacify this key territory in the greater region of the Middle East, so we can keep getting oil imports out of there in a reliable and orderly way, so we can keep on driving all our cars. And the whole thing has turned out rather badly. Now there is another consensus forming. Across the political spectrum, from the far left to the far right, elected officials are now clamoring to "stop the war in Iraq." By this they mean get US troops out. What cracks me up is their juvenile belief that being there is somehow optional for us, that we can keep on running Wal Mart and Walt Disney World without paying any price for it in the costs of policing the Middle East. If we don't maintain a military presence in Iraq, it is perfectly plain what will happen: Iran will instantly gain control of the southern Iraq oil fields. Iraq doesn't have an army anymore. It is incapable of preventing Iran from acquiring control of its territory. From that vantage, Iran would also effectively threaten the sovereign existence of Kuwait -- or they could do the same thing that Saddam Hussein set out to do back in 1990: extract Kuwait's remaining oil by horizontal drilling across the borderline. Then there is the question of how much instability Iran could generate next door in the Shia-dominated Persian Gulf shoreline region of Saudi Arabia, where most of that nation's oil lies. (Meanwhile, there will be plenty more Iran-inspired mayhem in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.) It seems to me the answer to all this is clear: the first thing the US has to do is reach a different consensus about our behavior here at home, starting with the proposition that the happy motoring era must end. If we're not willing to do that, we're eventually going to lose both at home and in our struggles abroad. You can be sure that coming disturbances in the oil markets will make suburban life untenable while exhaustion and bankruptcy breaks our military. The air waves and internet sites are full of blather now about ending the "war" and bringing the troops home. The presidential candidates are agonizing over their various positions on the Iraq adventure. I'd like to hear one of them tell me how Atlanta is going to function without Middle Eastern oil, or how Wal Mart will move its merchandise from San Pedro to Lansing without a "warehouse on wheels," or how the thousands of yellow school bus fleets will carry on next September. Actually, instead, I'd like to hear talk about drastically reforming our zoning laws to discourage any more suburban development or a pitch to allow some of our tax money to fund a US passenger rail revival. I'd like to see a candidate refuse to attend a Nascar race on the grounds that it's an unconscionably stupid fucking waste of energy resources. I'm waiting for one of these birds to tell the American people the truth: you can't have it both ways. you can't get our military out of the Middle East without changing the way we live. Comments (3) Subscribe to this comment's feed a guest: Dick fitzgerald http://dickfitzgerald@horizoncable.com Iran inspired mayhem in Lebanon and Palestine? As usual, the Zionist Kunstler never mentions Israel occupying Palestine and repeatedly invading Lebanon. Kunstler has something to say about energy, but it's always clouded by his mindless Islamophobia. 1 June 18, 2007 a guest: ... http://dickfitzgerald@horizoncable.com Iran inspired mayhem in Lebanon and Palestine? No mention of course of Israel's many invasions of Lebanon or the Palestinian occupation. Kunstler has something to say about energy, but it's marred by his zionist view of the world 2 June 19, 2007 a guest: make choices that count http://Ann Muir It's difficult to imagine the radical change in our lives that is indeed called for as Kustler suggests, still individuals can make small changes that have a big impact. I found that driving 60 MPH on freeways allowed me to maintain a 40 MPG on a nine-year-old Saturn with over 100,000 miles on it. I am the slowest moving vehicle on the freeway. Remember in the 70's when speed limits were reduced to save gasoline? Can't that be done now? The public can lead the way by simply choosing to drive at 60 MPH. At home we can commit to walking, if able, to any destination within a mile - takes most people 15-20 minutes to walk that distance. You will be healthier, you will enjoy the natural beauty surrounding your home and you will meet your interesting, environmentally conscious neighbors who are also walking. If each of us who oppose the blood-for-oil war would make these very doable changes in our lives and encourage others to do the same, the effect would be noticable. This suggestion in no way condones this war or any of our adventures in the foreign policies that exploit and abuse other nations' people and resources. 3 June 19, 2007 Write comment Name Title Comment Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: Recommend this article...