Three bits from the Wall Street Journal

On the very day that I posted my concerns about the lack of movement by our government re oil the Journal reports that a bipartisan group of twenty-six national security officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations has written President Bush calling for a “major new initiative to curtail U.S. consumption” of oil. The group is looking for better gasoline mileage, greater support of hybrid vehicles and, surprisingly to me, support of cars that can burn ethanol. The group is going beyond the president and seeking the support of automobile manufacturers and farmers. A quote from one of the group: “We don’t have the time to wait for perfect solutions,” such as Bush’s hydrogen initiative.

The editorial page is usually quite partisan in espousing the virtues of the GOP. But, not today. They blast Tom DeLay for “betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out.”

And, finally, an op-ed that is really worth reading. It’s by David Rieff. He questions the ‘utopianism’ of our efforts to transform the world. He asks for a “little proportion about Iraq”. Has Sistani, a fairly conservative cleric, used our push toward democracy primarily as a way of gaining control for the Shiites? Once that control is achieved, how will we feel about the imposition of sharia? And he points out the difficulties of using the road from Baghdad airport two years after the war’s end as well as the fact that Iraq is still importing oil.

Most importantly, he asks, “Does the lack of democracy in the world really pose the kind of threat to the US that most Americans believed the Soviet empire did during the Cold War? And even if it does, do we really have the wisdom to change the world (my emphasis), or, as President Bush has put it, to spread the peace that freedom brings?” Hubris has brought down many people and many nations. It stands a very good chance of bringing us down as well unless we take a very clear look at who we really are and whom we want to become.