Oil Dependence and Teflon Governments

There are times that I'll be driving down the road listening to the news on the radio and I'll hear something that makes me bang my hand on the steering wheel and swear. That has happened a couple of times recently.

The first was the story of the 19 year old Saudi Arabian woman who was gang raped. That in itself was horrific, but then she, the victim, was prosecuted under Sharia law for being in a car with a man who was not a relative. First she was sentenced to 90 lashes and a prison sentence. Then the number of lashes was increased to 200 because of her insubordinate attempt to challenge the ruling. Her lawyer, incidentally, is being stripped of his license to practice for contacting the media. The response from the Bush/Cheney administration to this medieval level of injustice was embarrassingly muted.

More recently, a British woman teaching in Sudan was prosecuted and jailed for “insulting Islam.” Her crime was allowing her elementary school students to name a teddy bear Mohammed, a common male name in Muslim countries, but, of course, common because it is the name of the Muslim prophet. Bad enough, but then groups of Sudanese conservatives marched in the streets demanding her execution. For...allowing...children...to...name...a...teddy...bear...Mohammed. The British government engaged in a restrained diplomatic effort to obtain her release, and now she is back in the U.K. According to another visiting British teacher the ordinary Sudanese people on the street seemed embarrassed by the prosecution. Some are theorizing that the incident was an attempt by the Sudanese government to signal its displeasure with western interference in its internal affairs.

Before anyone gets the idea that I am piling on the Muslim world, my previous all-time champion case of steering wheel abuse was when a 12 year old Nicaraguan rape victim was excommunicated by the Catholic Church because her parents obtained an abortion for her. What with the antics of the Bush/Cheney administration, I should be replacing my steering wheel any day now.

But let's get back to the Persian Gulf. Autocratic and theocratic governments in that region regularly commit acts that go against our basic moral and political principles. Even so, we are unable to distance ourselves from them. We are partners in the strategic oil tango, cheek to cheek. We have 160,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan dependent for their survival on the good will of regional governments. The Bush/Cheney administration can't get too harsh with the Saudis because they are the swing producers of oil in the Middle East, and a quick turn on their oil valve could send shockwaves through our economy. Other nearby Teflon governments include Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and any country in Central Asia ending in “stan.”

There are many good reasons to reduce our consumption of oil in the categories of politics, economics, and environmental protection. I would add moral principle. Not only have we engaged in immoral acts in the pursuit of oil, but we have also tolerated morally repugnant behavior in our strategic allies. Witness, for example, our government's feeble response to the ongoing political oppression in Pakistan by our ally and apparent President for Life, Purvez Musharrif.

Perhaps it is just a truism that excessive dependency on others breeds moral atrophy. It is an atrophy that we as a nation can't afford. (As if we could afford the oil.)