There was a minor hubbub, especially on the Countdown program with Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, about this remark in Denver Friday,
SENATOR MCCAIN: My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.Later, McCain said this really "didn't mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil," along with some incomprehensible reason why the word "again" did not so mean. He then "clarified" that the Iraq war really was "because of weapons of mass destruction."
Ha! That's funny! Weapons of Mass Destruction is a better reason to be in Iraq than oil! Or, maybe he misspoke there too, it's really because Iraq is the "Central Front" of the Terror War, like a McCain stand-in explained on Hardball Friday.
It's all pretty silly. It may be "politically inconvenient," as the former Fed Chair, Alan Greenspan, wrote in his memoir, but no one can seriously believe that the U.S. would have picked Iraq for an invasion, conquest, and attempt at permanent strategic control if it weren't for that country being the only one left in the entire world where a few million barrels per day of potential swing oil production might be possible into the future.
And Senator John Kerry formed basically the same equation of better energy policy = no more troops to the Mideast. From his New Hampshire primary victory speech on January 27, 2004,
SENATOR KERRY: Stand with us - and we will give America the security of energy independence, because our sons and daughters should never have to fight and die for Mideast oil.It is difficult to find because no one official wants to discuss in the open the role oil occupies in the formation of policy. Witness McCain's backtracking above. But if you want a picture of how much oil drives policy, October 2005 remarks by former Secretary of State Colin Powell's deputy, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, should be your guide.
WILKERSON: The other thing that no one ever likes to talk about is SUVs and oil and consumption and, as one little girl said yesterday at the Yoshiyama Awards, do you know that we consume 60 percent of the world's resources? We do; we consume 60 percent of the world's resources. Well, we have an economy and we have a society that is built on the consumption of those resources. We better get fast at work changing the foundation -- and I don't see us fast at work on that, by the way, another failure of this administration, in my mind -- or we better be ready to take those assets. We had a discussion in policy planning about actually mounting an operation to take the oilfields in the Middle East, internationalize them, put them under some sort of U.N. trusteeship and administer the revenues and the oil accordingly. That's how serious we thought about it.Five years after the invasion of Iraq, we have $4 gas knocking at the door while we have a debilitating quagmire in the target country. It just keeps getting more and more puzzling to me that we can't have a forthright discussion about why we are really in there.
Note: Below the fold is the entirety of the 2004 New Hampshire victory speech by Senator Kerry. I really had to dig to find it, so I'm keeping it handy right here. It's rather apropos to today's gas tax discussions. I'd even say that this speech is more critical of big corporate interests than most of what is going on in the campaign today.
Remarks by Senator John Kerry - New Hampshire Primary Night
January 27, 2004 - As Prepared
I love New Hampshire. I love Iowa too. And I hope to have the opportunity to love a lot of other states in the weeks and months ahead.
Thank you, New Hampshire, for lifting up this campaign and the cause of an America that belongs not to the privileged, not to the few, but to all of our people.
And this victory belongs to all of you who made the phone calls, walked the cold and snowy cold streets, gave your hearts, your hands and countless sleepless nights. You stayed the course here in New Hampshire. And because of you, this has been a successful - and a happy campaign.
And I make you this pledge tonight: I have spent my whole life fighting against powerful interests - and I've only just begun to fight.
I have a message for the influence peddlers, for the polluters, the HMOs, the drug companies, big oil and all the special interests who now call the White House home:
We're coming. You're going. And don't let the door hit you on the way out.
This victory also belongs in a special way to the veterans who marched with us and lifted us up from the lowest points to where we stand tonight.
In the hardest moments of the past month, I depended on the same band of brothers I depended on more than thirty years ago. We're a little older, a little grayer, but we still know how to fight for our country. And if I am President, I pledge that those who wore the uniform of the United States of America will have a voice and a champion in the Oval Office.
Now this campaign goes on to places all over this country.
And I ask Democrats everywhere to join us so we can defeat George W. Bush, end the economy of privilege, and fulfill the ideal of opportunity not just for some, but for all.
I ask you to go to johnkerry.com; enlist with us, march with us across this land, and demand a government that's on your side again.
And together, let us lift our country up to the America it can become.
Stand with us - and together we will give America back its future by repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy so we can invest in health care and the education of our children.
Stand with us - and together we will build a prosperity where instead of Americans just working for the economy, the economy is working for Americans. A prosperity where we will reduce the poverty of millions instead of constantly reducing taxes for millionaires. A prosperity where we create jobs here at home - and where we shut down every tax loophole, every benefit and every reward for any Benedict Arnold CEO or company that sends jobs and profits overseas.
Stand with us - and together we will give America the fundamental decency of health care as a right and not a privilege.
An America where Medicare is protected, health care costs are held down and your family's health is just as important as any politician's in Washington.
Stand with us - and we will give America the security of energy independence, because our sons and daughters should never have to fight and die for Mideast oil.
Stand with us - and we will give America back its truth as a country where freedom rings, a country of equal rights and civil liberties where the Attorney General is no longer named John Ashcroft.
George Bush, who promised to be a uniter, has become the great divider. We believe in a country where everyone can hope and strive and move ahead - no matter where you come from, who you are or what the color of your skin.
And if you stand with us, we will make America safer by rejoining the community of nations and restoring our true role of leadership in the world.
George Bush has run the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in the modern history of our country.
Now George Bush and Karl Rove say that in 2004 they want to run on national security.
Well, I know something about aircraft carriers for real. And if George W. Bush wants to make national security the central issue in this campaign, I have three words for him I know he understands: Bring it on.
As I stand here now, I think of Robert Frost's words: The woods of New Hampshire are "lovely, dark and deep." And they certainly are lovely tonight. And while we still have "miles to go," I want to thank just some of you who shared our journey in this Granite State.
My amazing wife Teresa, Vanessa and Alex, Chris and Andre, my brother Cam, my sisters Diana and Peggy. My national chair and my New Hampshire chair - who didn't sit down for a moment - Jeannie and Billy Shaheen.
Some of the best and most talented leadership any campaign in New Hampshire or anywhere has ever had, Ken Robinson, Judy Reardon, Sue Casey, Nick Clemons, and Theo Yedinsky and all our great staff and dedicated volunteers - here and around the country. You kept on going, you never gave up. It's an honor for me to be on your side. Thank you.
Mayor Bob Baines and our New Hampshire leaders and the firefighters who served all that chili and so many others in New Hampshire too numerous to name.
My colleagues from Congress and so many others who came to help. My friends Ted Kennedy and Fritz Hollings from South Carolina. Fritz, we'll see you soon.
And most of all, thank you to the people of New Hampshire who voted today for a new day of hope in America.
Thank you and God bless you.
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