Lebanese Crude

The latest intrigue in the oil industry conspiracy to dominate the mideast has hit a slight snag as their Israeli proxies failed to install a suitable puppet government in Lebanon. But this is surely a temporary setback. Meanwhile, oil industry mouthpieces continue to slander oil-industry nemeses Walt and Mearscheimer, who have had to settle for sponsorship by the equally discredited CAIR in order to have their voices heard by a handful of insomniacs watching C-Span.

Of course big petroleum was instrumental in the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, as known industry flunkies such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith took advantage of post-9/11 hysteria to convince a gullible president to do their bidding (despite opposition by some Bush family insiders lacking any big-oil bona fides). Former oil exec David Frum's coinage of "Axis of Evil" is of course well known.

Alright I'm being a little silly. Sure, all that oil in the mideast can be a temptation, but there's a whole bunch of oil all over this big ol' world, including such friendly spots as Nigeria and Venezuela, but Israel is only in the mideast, and it's only in the mideast where we're engaged in really damaging policy. Then again, no one who blames our mideast adventurism on oil has ever been driven from public debate as an anti-petrolist. (I highly recommend watching that CAIR press conference on C-Span - search for "CAIR Walt Mearsheimer" on the site if the link doesn't work. And just because you and I and others may not be crazy about CAIR that should have little to do with whether W&M make sense.)