If Bush went on TV tonight and said that we were going to take over Venezuela, Mexico, and Iran, purely for their oil, and promised lower gas prices, he would probably begin tomorrow morning with approval ratings in the high 70s. Would the US have the "moral authority" to do so? Glenn Reynolds suggests yes. (This is besides that it might not have the desrired effect wouldn't allow production to be increased and prices to fall, unless we subsidized or taxed other oil somehow, nor could we pull this off militarily.) This builds off the Friedman article I highlighted yesterday. Glenn:

Of course, if we seized the Saudi and Iranian oil fields and ran the pumps full speed, oil prices would plummet, dictators would be broke, and poor nations would benefit from cheap energy. But we'd be called imperialist oppressors, then.

UPDATE: Various people (with various degrees of enthusiasm) see the above as a call for invasion. It was, rather, a comment on the vacuity of the "imperialist oppressors" language. Though I was probably wrong there anyway: If we really were imperialist oppressors, the critics would be sucking up.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ah, I see that Scott Adams has engaged in a similar thought experiment. His closing line rings true.

But just to troll a bit more, I do think that seizing Saudi and Iranian oil would be entirely morally justifiable on terms usually approved of by the left: They didn't earn it, they inherited it (it's like the Estate Tax writ large!). They're extracting huge profits for fatcats at the expense of the poor. They're racist, sexist, homophobic theocrats! (Literally!) Surely if it's ever permissible to redistibute wealth by force, this is the case. Right?

Meanwhile, Matthew Yglesias offers a practical objection: That there isn't enough surplus capacity in Saudi Arabia and Iran to make a difference. That's possible, but hardly undercuts the point. He also quotes Tim Lambert, who invokes Iraq -- but Lambert assumes, wrongly as usual, that Iraq was a war for oil. Had we wanted oil, we could have simply ended sanctions against Saddam, who after years of being limited to what he could launder through corrupt UN bureaucrats would have pumped plenty without us having to invade.

But practicalities aside, the point is -- why isn't war for oil not only morally permissible, but morally required, if the forcible redistibution of wealth in other ways (including "windfall profit" taxes) is OK?

An interesting thought experiment.

UPDATE 5/4/2006: Welcome Koz Kidz!

Posted by Ryan S. on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 at 3:15 PM | Permalink |