If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us

Senator John McCain made the following remarks on a Fox News interview on 1/22/06:

"We've got to get quickly on a track to energy independence from foreign oil, and that means, among other things, going back to nuclear power."

"We better understand the vulnerabilities that our economy, and our very lives, have when we're dependent on Iranian mullahs and wackos in Venezuela..."

Source: US Can't Be Held Hostage for Oil

I'm more than a little concerned, if this how the discussion is going to go, when it comes to America's (and the world for that matter) future energy economy. The United States seems to turn everything into a good vs. evil issue, where we're the good guys of course and everyone else who doesn't agree with us or who don't want to put our national security and economic interests before their own are "obviously" against us.

The problem with this good vs. evil mentality (that has been perpetuation by President Bush and his alleged war on terrorism) is that it is extremely simple and presents a one-sided approach of dealing with some seriously complex issues in the world. We have used and abused other countries and their resources around the world, all in the name of globalism and maintaining US economic growth and now that some countries are starting to question the status quo, the most intelligent criticism Mr. McCain can come up with is that Hugo Chavez is a "wacko."

I believe that more countries in the world are catching on to the fact that the dominance of the United States in the world is on the downward slope and that our only way of getting our way is name calling and demonizing leaders in other countries and bullying and justifying military action against countries that can't defend themselves.

While Mr. McCain is making a valid point, that the US is vulnerable to political and economic instability in the rest of the world, he's taking a back door approach. Instead of having an honest conversation about limited energy supplies and how vulnerable we really are and all of the options that are available to decreasing our reliance on foreign oil supplies, he's calling people wackos. I know McCain is a presidential hopeful in the the next election, but I'm hoping the American people would have enough sense to not elect someone who resorts to name calling in the face of serious and complex issues.