by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
W<\/span>ith the gruesome killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Vladimir Putin’s Russia stands accused of poisoning yet another critic.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Syria continues to mastermind the murders of Lebanese democrats. Israeli-free Gaza is as violent as ever. Hezbollah is busy replenishing its stock of Iranian missiles. The theocracy in Iran keeps promising an end to Israel. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is slowly strangling democracy in Latin America in a manner that an impoverished Fidel Castro never could.<\/p>\n And then, of course, there’s Afghanistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n It’s easy to think that all of this violent instability across the globe is unconnected. But, in fact, in one way or another, oil and its huge profits are at the bottom of a lot of it.<\/p>\n Islamic jihadists, fed from petrodollar wealth of the Middle East, have the cash to arm and plan operations from Baghdad and Kabul to Madrid and London. Thanks to oil, unhinged leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran and Chavez in Venezuela can stay in power (and demand the world’s attention) despite policies that ultimately harm their people, ruin their economies and imperil their neighbors.<\/p>\n Russia, meanwhile, is essentially threatening Eastern Europe with energy cutbacks and reviving the old Soviet nuclear and arms industries. It’s stirring up an already volatile Middle East by selling radical Islamists everything from nuclear reactors to high-tech anti-tank guns.\u00a0President Bush may have seen, as he attests, something reassuring in the heart of President Putin. But Russia’s new oil riches offer a fast track back to superpower status \u2014 which we’re already seeing them use to silence critics at home and abroad.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the global thirst for oil distorts interstate relations. Take the case of China. Its amoral foreign policy is aimed mostly at securing petroleum. Because Beijing is involved in long-term oil deals with Sudan, it’s reluctant to join the West in pressuring the corrupt Sudanese government to cease the genocide in Darfur. (Of course, the West, beholden to China for economic reasons, is in turn reluctant to pressure China.) Similarly, China worries far more about getting its hands on Iran’s oil than stopping its nuclear proliferation.<\/p>\n The U.S. is often subject to the same blackmail. Take away its need for imported oil and American officials long ago would have ceased visiting Saudi Arabia \u2014 a monarchy based on sharia law and the cash nexus for Islamist madrassas and Wahhabi terrorism. Rather than appeasing a few hundred sheiks in the Gulf, American presidents \u2014 both Democratic and Republican \u2014 might have instead worried more about the poor millions slaughtered in Chad, Darfur, Ethiopia and Rwanda.<\/p>\n H<\/span>igh-priced oil also warps the entire world’s limited attention span. We hear daily about Israeli “occupation” in the Middle East because the oil-rich patrons of the Palestinians have sent their terrorists ample subsidies and in the past leveled oil embargoes to punish those sympathetic to Israel. Yet millions more people the world over have also lost land. We don’t televise daily refugees from, say, Tibet or Cyprus, since their patrons have no ability to shut down global commerce.<\/p>\n The distortions caused by abrupt influxes of oil wealth have nearly turned upside down the once traditional and tribal Middle East. Sudden oil revenues prop up inefficient state-run economies, while ensuring that profits go to the few. Without democracy and free markets, the majority of impoverished Arabs lack access to their nation’s treasure \u2014 and blame foreigners for dealing only with their own elite who control the oil spigots and purse strings.<\/p>\n What money that does trickle down has been used for conspicuous consumption, not national investment \u2014 as monarchs and dictators import consumer toys to pacify the disenchanted.\u00a0In other societies, modernity came at a measured pace, but in the Middle East nomads and peasants have skipped the telegraph and headed straight to the camera cell phone. Of course, the poor “Arab street,” tuned into satellite TV, blames the postmodern West for titillating its newfound appetites.<\/p>\n To remedy this mess,\u00a0a good start would be to lower our own oil consumption, expand American production and diversify our energy sources with solar, nuclear and ethanol power and coal gasification. Only by taking these steps can America \u2014 the most desperate of all oilaholics \u2014 collapse the world price and thus erode the assets of our adversaries.<\/p>\n With a divided U.S. government and a slight dip in world prices, there is a window of opportunity. Democrats can ask for more mandated conservation and alternate energy; in exchange, Republicans can bargain for more drilling and nuclear power.<\/p>\n In World War II, an energy-independent United States bombed the oil fields of the Third Reich to stop Hitler’s killing. Today a wartime but energy-hungry America is daily enriching our worst enemies.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services With the gruesome killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Vladimir Putin’s Russia stands accused of poisoning yet another critic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[764],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Yl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12525,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-says-violent-protesters-made-faustian-bargain-with-democrats\/","url_meta":{"origin":3741,"position":0},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson says violent protesters made \u2018Faustian bargain\u2019 with Democrats","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Fox News Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, told Fox News\u2019 the \u201cIngraham Angle\u201d that it appears as though violent protesters have made some kind of \u201cFaustian bargain\u201d with Democrats that will result in the party being owned by those taking to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8134,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/summit-on-violent-extremism-laugh-or-cry\/","url_meta":{"origin":3741,"position":1},"title":"Summit on Violent Extremism\u2014Laugh or Cry?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO-The Corner It was just announced that the White House, in the wake of the mass murders in France, plans to reactivate an old idea of convening a \u201cSummit on Countering Violent Extremism.\u201d Is this an accurate news account or some sort of cruel satire?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NRO The Corner"","block_context":{"text":"NRO The Corner","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/nro-the-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12336,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-virus-is-a-violent-teacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":3741,"position":2},"title":"Our Virus Is a Violent Teacher","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Before this virus has passed, those of the New York Symphony, like the defeated Redcoats at proverbial Yorktown, will be playing the real \u201cThe World Turned Upside Down\u201d: And then strange motions will abound.Yet let\u2019s be content, and the times lament,you see the world\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8239,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-to-empower-violent-extremism\/","url_meta":{"origin":3741,"position":3},"title":"How to Empower Violent Extremism","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Every time Obama \u201ccontextualizes,\u201d Putin and ISIS grow bolder. by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Not too long ago, most Russians were reportedly unhappy with Vladimir Putin. 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This could be a legitimate concern,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12442,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-presidential-campaign-simile-storm-tossed-galleon\/","url_meta":{"origin":3741,"position":5},"title":"A Presidential Campaign Simile: Storm-Tossed Galleon","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Presidential campaigns are like galleons sailing into port, their metaphorical Election Day destinations. Some arrive there first, others not at all. 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