Global War on Terror vs. Global Warming

We linked earlier today to the House Select Intelligence Committee’s decision to mandate that the director of Central Intelligence spend more time worrying about global warming and less time worrying about terrorism. Unfortunately, that seems to be fairly representative of the priorities of the Democratic party these days. The good folks over at the Unalienable Right pull this quote from a speech Obama gave in Detroit today:

“At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the country that faced down the tyranny of fascism and communism is now called to challenge the tyranny of oil.”

Challenge the “tyranny of oil?” Is that really the challenge that Obama believes America is now faced with. Look, we’re all for reducing dependence on foreign sources of oil–and we could start by drilling some holes in ANWR, on the continental shelf, etc.–but Obama seems less concerned with where the oil’s coming from, then the deeply suspect premise that oil “threatens to destroy [our way of life] if our generation does not act now and act boldly.” Still, there’s at least one Democrat who is willing to speak to the real danger we face, and the need for this generation to act now and act boldly in confronting it. Here’s Joe Lieberman on the floor of the Senate today:

But, leadership requires sometimes that we defy public opinion if that is what is necessary to do what is right for our country. In fact, at a time like this, we are required to do what each of us believes is right, and that might not be what is popular.
And what is right, I firmly believe, is that we cannot allow our nation to be defeated in Iraq by the same terrorist enemy with which we are engaged in a world-wide conflict. The global war on terrorism which we are waging is a world-wide struggle against a barbaric totalitarian foe that is Al Qaeda. And today, it is Al Qaeda that we are fighting in Iraq. Al Qaeda itself has declared Iraq to be the central front of their larger war against our way of life.

Oil isn’t the problem, radical Muslims terrorists are the problem. Surely we must reduce the flow of petrodollars to the Middle East, but not so that Hollywood can force us all to drive go-carts while they fly around in private jets. Obama’s railing against oil might help his fundraising, but comparing oil to fascism and communism, and ignoring the real threat to this country in the 21st century…that’s not leadership.

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