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The Real Reason For the War
Posted by on 04/28 at 03:39 PM
If aliens don't land on earth in the next decade or so and bequeath unto us something like anti-matter energy, we on planet earth are unfortunately stuck with the energy we already have. I say unfortunately because our favorite energy source - oil - is beginning to show its true scarcity, yet we in the US continue to burn it like there's no tomorrow. But tomorrow does always eventually come, and just how are we going to deal with that?
Not well at all, here in the good ol' USA. The Land of the Free Market won't take well to the reality that energy is not, in fact, free. See "Iraq War" for tips on how Americans deal with reality. Lucky for us our military is so big and capable - we can just go grab what we need. The thing that makes me really crazy is that just taking over Iraqi or Saudi or Iranian oil fields - besides the sordid morality of the enterprise - doesn't solve any of the long term problems presented by Peak Oil, or even the short term ones.
How much oil does the whole US military/industrial complex burn? I mean, in all it's gigantic, unholy magnificence? Count all the Lockheed/Pentagon/Raytheon employees, all their commuting SUV's with the little "support our troops" yellow ribbons on the back, all the office towers and factories they work in, all the fuel the whole US work force burns to pay the military budget tax, all the mining and smelting and refining of the precious war metals, all the ships that move the raw materials and the oil from there to here and back again, all the troops and their generals, their military bases, all the machines of war themselves: the aircraft carriers, the submarines, the satellites, the rockets, the planes, the bombs, how much oil does it take to make ALL THAT happen? And how much oil would be saved if we just didn't do ALL THAT?
Some say the real reason for the war is oil, but they have it backwards. The real reason for the oil is war.
Comments
Yes, today the (our) military needs oil to move personnel and munitions. That of course was not always the case. In the days before steam-powered ships, the wind brought men to the battle (don
Posted by on 05/17 at 01:32 PM Correction to previous post:
Pardon my dyslexia. The Spanish armada episode was in the 1580’s not the 1850’s.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01727c.htm
Posted by on 05/17 at 10:26 PM Interesting post Mark, thanks. “Food” is the energy source of the human body, just as oil is the energy source of the machine. Since we now use machines to create our food surplus, it is ominous to consider that our food surplus will “peak” at the same time as the oil peak.
There’s a biblical passage that I’ve been pondering lately: Isaiah 65: 21-22
“They will build houses and inhabit them;
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
“They will not build and another inhabit,
They will not plant and another eat”
These passages includes the famous line about lions laying down with lambs. I interpret this to mean that there will be an end to the hierarchical system of exploitation that exists today (and has existed for thousands of years). There will be no rich class or rich nation that enjoys the food of another person’s work. Everyone will eat only what they each grow or forage. Just like you say.
Posted by Editor on 05/20 at 02:10 PM “The lion and the lamb will lie down together” (but the lamb won’t get much sleep!) I’ve searched the Bible sites for that famous Bible passage (without the Woody Allen post script) with no success as to where precisely it appears. There are a couple of references in Isaiah to lambs and lions but the lamb is always paired with a wolf (11:6 & 65:25). Funny how many famous Bible quotes aren’t really from the Bible?
The passages you mentioned, Isaiah 65:21-22, have a distinctly anti-socialist and anti-slavery message. To me it says, “What you work hard for, you will keep. You won
Posted by on 05/22 at 01:19 PM Well, I checked it out, and you’re right: Isaiah 65:25 -
“The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
The lion and the lamb are not specifically placed together in the same passage, but I think the meaning is close enough. You’re quote by Ugo Betti is a good one, very much what has been occupying my mind lately.
Posted by Editor on 05/22 at 02:48 PM
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