Foreign Energy
Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz claimed that Iraq's oil revenue would cover the costs of the war: "There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. Those oil revenues could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next three years. We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
Nobel laureate economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University professor of public policy Linda Bilmes have offer a far more reasonable and likely estimate of more than $1 trillion for this war.
Bush has sought to rationalize the invasion of Iraq as a noble effort to democratize the Middle East, while our European allies and Russia based their regional policies on economic reality.
We import only about 22 percent of our crude oil from the Middle East, but the European Union imports 40 percent from the region. A European Commission green paper on the EU's energy supply says that in the next 25 years the EU could be importing 90 percent of all its crude oil. The EU also imports more crude oil and natural gas from Russia than from any other country.
The European Union has more to lose than does the United States from direct involvement in the Middle East. The economic realities that the United States has ignored, which our European allies can not, is that Russia and the Middle East could strangle the European Union's economy at will.
We have a small window of opportunity to invest in alternative energy sources that could relieve this country of the oil dependency that is driving our imperialistic Middle East policies.
The half-trillion dollars that we have spent to conduct the war could have funded a massive alternative energy development program in this country or paid for all of our oil imports for four years at current prices.
We hope America embarks on a course to free ourselves from dependency on foreign energy sources and returns to a rational policy of self-reliance.
Nobel laureate economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University professor of public policy Linda Bilmes have offer a far more reasonable and likely estimate of more than $1 trillion for this war.
Bush has sought to rationalize the invasion of Iraq as a noble effort to democratize the Middle East, while our European allies and Russia based their regional policies on economic reality.
We import only about 22 percent of our crude oil from the Middle East, but the European Union imports 40 percent from the region. A European Commission green paper on the EU's energy supply says that in the next 25 years the EU could be importing 90 percent of all its crude oil. The EU also imports more crude oil and natural gas from Russia than from any other country.
The European Union has more to lose than does the United States from direct involvement in the Middle East. The economic realities that the United States has ignored, which our European allies can not, is that Russia and the Middle East could strangle the European Union's economy at will.
We have a small window of opportunity to invest in alternative energy sources that could relieve this country of the oil dependency that is driving our imperialistic Middle East policies.
The half-trillion dollars that we have spent to conduct the war could have funded a massive alternative energy development program in this country or paid for all of our oil imports for four years at current prices.
We hope America embarks on a course to free ourselves from dependency on foreign energy sources and returns to a rational policy of self-reliance.
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