If the slogan were instead “It’s all about the FOOD!” would the war somehow be more morally palatable? Oil is as necessary as food for the survival of everyone, China and Bangladesh as well as for the US. And of course those countries won’t help us–they know we’d do it anyway.

So unless leftists are willing to plunge the globe into a Dark Ages of economic depression and pre-enlightenment savagery, they should come up with a reasonable alternative to deposing the ME oil despots or shut the frick up.

On the right, there’s a link to a transcript and a link that says you can watch the original program but for some reason it’s not working for me. I rarely comment here but some time ago I asked around about this Barnett fellow. Hope this helps.

Don’t know if you’re around right now, it’s 10:30pm EST, but CSPAN is airing Barnett’s TPNM and taking questions.

I believe you are exactly right, that the “much maligned neo-con vision” is a good one, firmly based on a concept of enlightened self-interest. And for the last 30 years, most of America’s liberal establishment have been talking the talk of “human rights” while excusing some of the vilest dictatorships in the Middle East. Roger has spoken quite eloquently about this. I’ll only add that the neocons get such a bad rap from the press precisely because they have caught the reactionary “liberal” world in its great hypocrisy.