Thomas Friedman, one foot on the moon and one on earth

I hate to keep picking on poor Thomas Friedman but I have to. Today he says all the right things but he is looking at George W. Bush through those same delusional rose colored glasses that he has been wearing to look at the situation in Iraq.

In Fly Me to the Moon he looks at something Bush could do to leave with a positive legacy, energy independence.

If President Bush is looking for a legacy, I have just the one for him - a national science project that would be our generation's moon shot: a crash science initiative for alternative energy and conservation to make America energy-independent in 10 years. Imagine if every American kid, in every school, were galvanized around such a vision. Ah, you say, nice idea, Friedman, but what does it have to do with your subject - foreign policy?

Everything! You give me an America that is energy-independent and I will give you sharply reduced oil revenues for the worst governments in the world. I will give you political reform from Moscow to Riyadh to Tehran. Yes, deprive these regimes of the huge oil windfalls on which they depend and you will force them to reform by having to tap their people instead of oil wells. These regimes won't change when we tell them they should. They will change only when they tell themselves they must.
......[snip]......

If President Bush made energy independence his moon shot, he would dry up revenue for terrorism; force Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to take the path of reform - which they will never do with $45-a-barrel oil - strengthen the dollar; and improve his own standing in Europe, by doing something huge to reduce global warming. He would also create a magnet to inspire young people to contribute to the war on terrorism and America's future by becoming scientists, engineers and mathematicians. "This is not just a win-win," said the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum. "This is a win-win-win-win-win."

Or, Mr. Bush can ignore this challenge and spend the next four years in an utterly futile effort to persuade Russia to be restrained, Saudi Arabia to be moderate, Iran to be cautious and Europe to be nice.

He is correct of course but there are a couple of problems:

• This would not be in the short term interests of the oil companies that George W. Bush and his administration are attached to at the hip


and


• George W. Bush has given every indication that he wants to leave this country a bankrupt-defeated-feudalistic-theocracy.

So nice try Tom but it's time to take off those glasses.