Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Interesting Alignments

From Prometheus, we hear about an interesting development: many of the neocons in Washington who promoted war with Iraq are now going green. An article in Slate says that, “James Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and staunch backer of the Iraq war, now drives a 58-miles-per-gallon Toyota Prius and has two more hybrid vehicles on order. Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy and another neocon who championed the war, has been speaking regularly in Washington about fuel efficiency and plant-based bio-fuels.”

Woolsey and Gaffney, both members of the hawkish Project for a New American Century, look at going green from a geopolitical perspective. They have begun to see that the flow of oil dollars to countries potentially hostile to us as a threat to our national interests. They view reducing oil imports as a “national security imperative”.

Many will view this with mixed emotions. It is promising that those who speak to decision-makers are starting to come around. But was it necessary to go through the tragedy of war in Iraq for their epiphanies? It seems that anyone with half a brain could have seen that war isn’t the way to provide energy security. Some of the threats to our energy supply will be tougher to take on than Iraq.

Maybe we can start the debate again about fuel efficiency standards for SUVs. Perhaps next we can even get the neocons concerned about the threats to human capital and intellectual resources from exposures to environmental toxicants.

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