European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes wednesday september 5,1990 letters William f. Buckley or. . Should plan to Spur end of Oil Cartel nation the question has been raised whether our intervention in the Mideast is justified by a consideration of vital interests. President Bush has been criticized for leaving this Point unclear. And then the America Bailers have done their Best to Sully our policy by saying matter of factly that it has to do quite simply with Oil. That is shorthand for rank materialism. Geopolitical analysts do Well to probe the question whether the United states should emerge As the guarantor of existing National boundaries. One would Hope that most people who have been detoxified from the wilsonian illusion which had a spastic afterlife in Tirohn f. Kennedy a inaugural address would agree that this is not an american responsibility not that nor even a responsibility to enforce democratic practices in the world. It is obvious we have not gone into saudi Arabia in order to liquidate autocracy. On the generality a should the . Army Navy and air Force be available to Settle Boundary disputes a one Hopes to find such agreement no. But this still leaves us asking whether the Case can be made that we Are in saudi Arabia to defend our vital interests. First lets free ourselves of the fastidious distinction Between Oil and poetry or whatever it is that its of to use Force to secure. Oil May be thought of As that murky stuff that produces texan Oil bulgarians which is the Way in which the ideological press urges us to think about Oil a Mere Money. But to think about it in that Way is the equivalent of thinking about an unemployed Man seeking desperately for a Job As a materialist. It is As simple As until another form of efficient Energy is developed the Industrial world needs Oil even As the unemployed Man needs a Job. Those who Are indifferent to the Universal availability of Oil might As Well be indifferent to the Universal unavailability of employment. Saudi Arabia has one Quarter of the worlds reserves of Oil which combined with Kuwait and Iraq gives you More than 40 percent. If we Grant that the United states has a vital interest in world peace then we Grant that it has a vital interest in seeing to it that the persian Gulf does not become either an instrument of extortion or a pit of anarchy around which armed vultures of the world gather to make other than love. A very Good Case might even have been made for threatening military Force against the Cartel that until it broke up by reason of disloyalty among its constituent parts waged economic War against the West. The isolationist tradition in respect of a a entangling alliances was not bad geopolitical thought in other Days other times. The notion that we needed any particular commodity that could be produced Only in the Mideast a or in China or in Australia a was quaint. The United states was never an Auta Chic dream a nation that could produce for itself everything that it consumed. From our earliest Days we were a nation of traders and throughout the 19th Century we were Busy exporting our goods and importing others. It Wasny to really until world War ii that we faced the Scarcity of a critical commodity so agonizingly that Only doctors and generals could buy a new rubber tire. What then happened quickly was the Prospect not Only of running out of something that we did no to ourselves have enough of a Oil say or molybdenum. But we also came into the Range of weapons we could not Cope with. It is not a cliche to mention in this connection the nuclear age. An israeli scholar speaking on �?o60 minutes to Mike Wallace said last sunday that Saddam Hussein was a a made to Nave begun his aggression now. A if he had waited just five years head have accosted us All with nuclear in just five years in other words Iraq would have a nuclear bomb. Already Israel has one. It has been estimated that by the end of the Century As Many As 10 nations that do not now have the bomb will have it. And of course we know that Saddam Hussein has what one might Call the next Best thing namely poisons of various kind guaranteed to arrest population growth. We need in order to consummate our experience in saudi Arabia a Long term very Long term Deal having to do with the Supply of Oil and an end to its Cartel nation. Details of such an arrangement Are inappropriate at this moment but vital tomorrow and the Day after. Universal press Syndicate William Safire in a a a. A a a -i.n�?.i. Another example of Public speech uncertainty to enliven a column on the split Between tall Boris Yeltsin and Shorter Mikhail Gorbachev i evoked the image of Mutl and Jeff the tall and Short comic strip creations of Bud Fisher. Gorby was Mutt the Short one. Late that evening As the first edition began to Roll my copy editor called. �?o1 have this horrible feeling a said Steve Pickering a that Mutt was the tall what did this Youthful editor know about the comic strip heroes of my salad Days confident of my memory i reached for the smithsonian history of the comics Klong a to my dismay Mutt was indeed the tall one. My entire essay was built on a metaphoric lie. A Pickering a i said you wonder Why i act like a enry a Iggins a save in the grand tradition of Grace under editorial pressure he electronically substituted mutts for All the Jeffs and Jeffs for mutts throughout the piece. For nine tenths of the papers run and in All the papers taking the news service Mutt accurately became the tall one a no longer standing for Gorbachev but for Yeltsin the tall one. This episode Shook my certitude. Not enough to reduce me to humility a big feet done to cry a but enough to make me wonder about the enormous responsibility we pundits Bear. For example after a pop in this space at the Way lib a Hussein was Toa dying to big Hussein the King of Jordan skid brother took exception to the application of the word a toadies Quot to the great hash emite dynasty and wrote a the shrieks of important Media pundits have All too often a distressing Way of shaping Public two questions leap to mind. The first a does Shrek rhyme with Sheik and if not Why not a is not germane to my weekday work. The second a do pundits really form Public opinion a is Worth pondering in Light of the widespread perturbation known As the split on the right. In Case you were forming your own opinion and missed it some right Wing sages Are a in schism Quot a that is dissenting from the hawkish interventionist hard line of the majority of their regular bedfellows who see the iraqi dictator As a would be Hitler. Evans and Novak and Pat Buchanan usually As jingoistic As the rest of us sound More like senators greening and Morse in the Early Vietnam Era they want no part of policing the persian Gulf or toppling Saddam Hussein. Jeane Kirkpatrick also sees a no distinctive . Interest in the Gulf. These Are not Lum Pable As a Mcgove mite Hawks a each heart has its particular reasons. Rowley Evans has always been Lawrence of Arabia reincarnate Pat was and is a Goldwater True believer eager to dissociate himself from conservatism a johnnies come lately Jeane is steeped in the uses of diplomacy. We nighties come to our sides line of scrimmage with different mental sets but share a discomfort at being in the Ilent majority. We Long for the luxury of isolation the blessed business of being besieged the ecstasy of apostasy. Splitting comes easier to us than to Yeltsin or Gorbachev differences among the denizens of the right Are More ardent than the Boring differences Between populist right and lukewarm left. Does it matter Why Are the views of pundits Given such weight answers because we have ready reactions and the Congress was out of town and More important we Are free to utter truths that politicians and diplomats even when on duty cannot. Take the essential Point of our current National purpose which right wingers of my ilk believe is to remove the world threat of a murderous aggressor soon to be nuclear armed. The president to hold his International consensus together must limit his stated goal to the status quo Ante approved by the Security Council. Until sen. Richard Lugar became the presidents designated real purpose hitter that task of pointing out the real aim fell to the Hawks of August in the trenches of column. On the other Side those right Wing pundits opposing a strike deserve a hearing because few in Public office have militated against a just War. The exception is Gen. H. Norman Schwartzkopf our new Mcclellan who arrogated to himself a political decision usually reserved to an elected president when he stated a a there a not going to be any War unless the iraqis spoken with the certitude of a Media Biggie. We observers May be the Shock troops of dividing opinion but the Public opinion Battles Are won by the participants in the Arena. I have this urge to whisper in our sure of our defensive purpose general s ear a Mutt was the tall new York times
