No mullah left behind

THOMAS L FRIEDMAN The Wall Street Journal ran a very, very alarming article from Iran on its front page last Tuesday. The article explained how the mullahs in Tehran — who are now swimming in cash thanks to soaring oil prices — rather than begging foreign investors to come into Iran, are now shunning some of them. The Journal quoted Ali Ansari, an Iran specialist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, as saying that for 10 years analysts had been writing about Iran’s need for economic reform. ‘‘In actual fact, the scenario is worse now,’’ said Ansari. ‘‘They have all this money with the high oil price, and they don’t need to do anything about reforming the economy.’’
Indeed, The Journal added, the conservative mullahs are feeling even more emboldened to argue that with high oil prices, Iran doesn’t need Western investment capital and should feel ‘‘free to pursue its nuclear power program without interference’’.

This is a perfect example of the Bush energy policy at work, and the Bush energy policy is: ‘‘No Mullah Left Behind’’.

By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to develop a crash programme for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the US Armed Forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernise their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda US is trying to promote. How smart is that?

Indian Express