NEW YORK TIMES SEES THE US IN A CUL-DE-SAC

Worry over dependence on imported sources of energy. Gas-saving cars and bio-diesel are ways out.

By Thomas Immanuel Steinberg

[This article published in: Junge Welt, 1/17/2006 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.jungewelt.de/2006/01-17/012.php.]




The New York Times is worried. The Russian-Ukraine dispute over gas prices has shocked Europe; Iran’s announcement to reopen its nuclear energy facilities makes the US tremble. In an unsigned editorial in its Sunday edition, the leading paper of world capital discovers that the West depends on imported energy. Europe is now examining its energy policy on account of the temporary interruption of the natural gas influx from Russia. Iran’s president Mahmud Ahmadinedschad has a free hand in nuclear matters, the newspaper says, because China will vote against sanctions in the UN Security Council. Iran could interrupt the oil flow and plunge the world energy market into turbulence.




US president George W. Bush and his Vice-president Dick Cheney will try to “drill their way through” the energy dependence. Gas-saving cars and bio-diesel would be better answers. The US cannot win Bush’s war against terror as long as it spends billions daily for oil abroad. The US could not introduce democracy in the Middle East because governments with great oil revenues did not want any democracy. The US will not control the necessary geopolitical lever as long as it depends on uncertain foreign sourc3es of energy.

The New York Times defended the US-British surprise attack on Iraq and covered up all the war lies of the Bush administration: from Saddam Hussein’s alleged collaboration with the phantom Al Qaida and the weapons of mass destruction to the supposed democratization plans for conquered Iraq. In the past, the newspaper also spread Israeli-US arguments for a surprise attack on Iran. Thus Sunday’s editorial could be a sign of a shift in opinion in the ruling class of the US.