Gary Hart: Our energy policy is to fight for foreign oil

Friday, March 30, 2007

(Wyoming Democratic Party)

Former U.S. senator addresses 75 Democrats in Cheyenne

By Bill Luckett

Communications director

Wyoming Democratic Party

CHEYENNE - Although the Bush administration met in secret with multinational energy firms to craft the country's energy policy early in the Bush presidency, former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart said he's pretty sure he knows what that policy is.

"It is the policy of the United States of America to import oil from dangerous and unreliable parts of the world to fuel inefficient automobiles, and if that oil gets cut off, to send our sons and daughters overseas to fight for that oil," Hart told a group of about 75 Democrats in Cheyenne on March 22.

However, he said, oddly enough, our country has been in two wars in the Persian Gulf fighting for oil in the past 15 years, and yet no president has used the word "oil" to explain the military actions.

Hart, visiting Cheyenne as a guest of the Laramie County Democrats, said he thinks that is the consensus that the administration and the energy companies reached, that the United States would continue to import oil from the Middle East, and the companies' investments in the Persian Gulf would be protected by the U.S. military.

"I think that has a lot to do with why we're in the quagmire we're in right now," Hart said. "What drives me crazy is that the president or anybody else doesn't have the courage to say it."

Changing that policy is central to providing security in the 21st century, according to Hart. He said our country spends more than $700 billion a year fighting for foreign oil. That is more than the military budgets of all the 187 other countries in the world combined.

This nation is responsible for 25 percent of the world's oil consumption, and 60 percent of it comes from abroad. That figure is climbing toward 70 percent.

Sen. Hart said 25 years ago that if our country continues to rely on foreign oil, we will have to fight for it, and in 1980, he introduced legislation to tax foreign oil.

Multinational oil services corporation Halliburton's recent announcement that it will move its world headquarters from Houston to Dubai is a sign of the times, according to Hart.

"Welcome to the 21st century," he said. "I think you'll see more of this."

Halliburton in particular is a "huge symbol," Hart said, and its move signifies to the world and particularly to Americans that our country will be involved in the Middle East for a long, long time.

He contended that the policy of fighting for oil in unstable parts of the world is perhaps the biggest factor affecting our national security. So, when politicians claim they are strong on national security because they voted for a bigger military, the real question one should ask is what they plan to do about our country's dependence on Persian Gulf oil, Hart said.

Earlier in the evening, Hart gave a brief synopsis of his book, "The Courage of Our Convictions: A Manifesto for Democrats," in which he looked back at four great presidents of the 20th century and examined how they displayed distinctively Democratic principles.

FDR's New Deal policies viewed the United States as one large national community. "We are one people," Hart said. "To put it another way, we are all in this together. That was a central idea. ... I think we ought to recapture that notion, because I think it is central to what our country stands for."

One of Harry S. Truman's major initiatives was to confront communism, but not by ourselves. We did it hand-in-hand with our allies. That contrasts sharply with the way our current president led our nation into Iraq, in which we pretty much left our allies behind. That was a big mistake, Hart said, because we need our allies to defeat terrorism.

John Kennedy implored us to ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country. That idea of giving something back to our community has been around for 2,500 years, Hart said, but Kennedy made it a central part of his presidency.

LBJ's policies were based on the principle of equality and justice for all. That is a concept that goes back to Thomas Jefferson, and which was resurrected by Abraham Lincoln, and resurrected again in this century by Lyndon Johnson.

Hart said the Democratic Party can stand on the principles those four presidents put forth. And if we do, our party should be able to enjoy even more of the success our party has had in recent years in the West.