OIL AND WATER

One of the many images that have bolstered me in the last few days have been the photos that the US Navy have been posting at their website which show how well and hard our military has been working to ameliorate the suffering of the millions of people hurt by the recent tsunami. (HAT TIP PRESTOPUNDIT.)

One little part of the imagery has stuck in my mind: photo after photo of water bottles - being filled; being ditributed. We have all heard so much about how getting clean water to the area is critical to prevent disease and more death. Well, that's a lot of what we've being doing - getting the survivors clean water.

AND... all of the water bottles are of course PLASTIC. Now, this would be hardly noticeable to most people in the world: most of the world is young, and they don't remember the days when ALL bottles were glass. I DO. Can you imagine the added problems and costs we'd be facing if all the many MILLIONS of water bottles being filled and distributed were GLASS? The added weight... the breakage. The difficulty of handling. Sheesh.

And all those many millions of water bottles are made from OIL. And delivered by ships and planes and heliocopters that run on OIL. And all those hospitals all over the region that are filled with injured victims of the tsunami - they are all lighted with OIL, cooled with OIL; their OR's are lighted by OIL, too. As are the water purifiers we are delivering all powered by oil.

Without OIL, the rescue would be impossible; with less oil, or more expensive oil, the rescue would be less effective, and more costly. And more lives would be lost.

WE NEED OIL. The WHOLE WORLD NEEDS OIL. OIL IS NOT THE CONSPICUOUSLY SOLD OR CONSPICUOUSLY CONSUMED LUXURY ITEM THAT THE LEFT WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE IT IS.

Oil is a necessity - the most basic commodity of the world economy. Without oil (and the products and the energy from oil) modern life would cease to function, and rescue missions - like the one now on-going in the Indian Ocean - would be IMPOSSIBLE.

I GRANT YOU: this is a minor point, one that should not be necessary to make. But the recent onslaught of anti-oil Leftist propaganda makes me feel it's necessary to reiterate.

"NO BLOOD FOR OIL!" was an awful and shallow harangue that belittled BOTH our aims in liberating Iraq, AND our NEED FOR OIL.

A need which President James Earl Carter clearly and unequivocably spelled out in his 1980 SOTU:

"Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."

Carter was right then, and The Carter Doctrine is still right: we mustn't allow Jihadoterrorism to gain control of the world's oil by gaining control of Iraq or Saudi Arabia. And that is PART of what is at stake in the GWOT today in Iraq.

OIL: it's not just about the "First World's" ability to drive big cars. It's the whole world's ability to produce prosperity and to respond to global calamities.

Next time you hear an anti-globalist Leftist or Luddite deride the West's insatiable need for oil, tell him to try to go a day without it! And ask him: would he rather the whole world was like the Third World, or would he prefer those in the Third World to become materially better off... MORE LIKE THE FIRST WORLD!?

Well, we'll never make the people of the Third World more materially rich by having the First World consume less and buy less; that would just create a GLOBAL recession and more poverty - FOR EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE! NOPE, to improve the lives of people in the Third World we have to build more power plants and produce more goods. That means find, mine, refine and use more OIL., because it's the lifeblood of the modern world. It's what enables us - in the First World - to enjoy each day, create prosperity, and to help those less fortunate make tomorrow a better day.