The Tyranny of Oil?

Before the invasion of Iraq, many protesters took a "no blood for oil" opposition to the looming war (personally, I just thought the administration was full of shit, and thought the war was generally a bad idea). Right-wingers scoffed at the notion that this was an 'oil war' (so did I, if only because listening to the rhetoric of the war's architects, you'd see their larger motivations were far more disgusting).They insisted that the war's critics were a bunch of insane hippies.

Some of the war's supporters, however, reacted to 'oil war' anger with a "so what, they got it, we need it, let's get it" attitude. Rupert Murdoch, king of numerous fair and balanced media outlets, said in backing the war, "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That’s bigger than any tax cut in any country." And they all lived happily ever after.

But in general, discussing oil in conjunction with the war circa 2002-2004 was certain to get you reviled and dismissed by pundits and politicians from left, right, and center.

It's with that history in mind that I was shocked by the non-reaction to this line from Barack Obama's Iowa victory speech (a line he's used in stump speeches for a while). He promised to work to-

"...free this nation from the tyranny of oil once and for all."

A strong statement notable to me by how non-controversial it is now.

Nearly every candidate is promising to wage war against oil's deadly grip on us. It's been presented as an economic issue, a national security issue, and an environmental issue (a formidable 3-way). Even President Bush-- oil's long-time BFF-- has paid lip-service to the problem... while threatening vetoes to proposed solutions. Maybe it took $3-4 a gallon to get people to realize that we have a problem that can't be solved by just digging around for more of the stuff. Whatever the reason, it's encouraging that this issue is no longer as taboo as it just so recently was.

Now if only someone had a real solution here. Our current fixes are less than perfect.