Geo-Greenism

[PatrickHenry]

Thomas Friedman has a new song to trumpet. http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2...man/index.html
Three-time Pulitzer winner, NY Times columnist, Friedman is a damn good writer. I read his From Beirut to Jerusalem in January 2005. And he has a new book out now:



From the interview with Grist:

Q: If you were sitting down with President Bush to pitch your geo-green strategy in a few sentences, what would you say? A: I would say that geo-green is the natural successor to neocon. The neocons basically believe in using American military power to drive the democracy agenda in the Middle East, and that, idealistically speaking, was the purpose of the invasion of Iraq. The reality is we do not have the resources to do that again -- not in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or anywhere. Yet we have a fundamental interest in promoting political and economic reform in that part of the world so people have better governance, more opportunities, and less frustration. Like the president, I want to see that political reform agenda go forward. Q: So how would substantial reductions in American oil demand achieve that? A: It will help bring down the global price of oil, and when you do that you create a burning platform under these governments that forces change. As long as we have $60-a-barrel oil, Arab gulf countries won't diversify their economies and their regimes can buy off all the discontent. They will use huge oil windfalls to fund state-owned industries that soak up jobs, but don't create an educated or dynamic economy. You could actually track on a graph the rise and fall of political reform in Iran that mirrors almost perfectly the rise and fall in oil price. And look at Bahrain, one of the first Arab gulf countries to discover oil, and the first to run out of it. It was also the first to hold a free and fair election where women could vote and run, and the first to totally revamp labor laws to wean itself off dependence on foreign labor. A similar trend happened in Jordan. <snip> Q: Your columns on geo-greenism generally describe the concept in terms of its foreign-policy advantages rather than its environmental advantages. Why? A: I'm trying to bring in a whole new constituency. I'm not worried about the environmental community that's already concerned about climate change, as I am. I'm trying to educate a whole different part of the populace to get them to connect these dots.

Does Friedman's strategy have wings or does Dubya have his head so far up Big Oil's butt that this proposal is DOA?

[Sonart]

Fareed Zakaria (slightly left leaning columnist with TIME) was arguing this in his book, The Future of Freedom, two years ago. To wit: national economies based on a single, government controlled resource have little or no incentive to liberalize their governments.

Will Bush "connect the dots"? With a cabinet and office manned so completely with former oil execs, I can't imagine he's getting advice to do so from the inside.


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