THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

OPEC DELENDA EST | 2003-04-05

In the Year of our Lord 1941, the United States was OPEC. We were the world's main producer of oil.

In 1941 Franklin Roosevelt wanted desperately to get America into World War II so he cut off all American oil shipments to Japan.

It worked and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Ten years from now everybody is going to be whining, "Why didn't we take out OPEC when we had the chance in Iraq?" Ten years from now, absolutely everybody will be saying that they wanted to take out OPEC but others didn't want to.

Look around you. Do you see anybody besides Whitaker who has even mentioned the possibility of using Iraq to end OPEC?

The OPEC cartel is a hostile act against America. Nobody denied that before the Iraq War. Nobody will deny that after the Iraq War. But right now we have to get that stupid idealistic look on our faces and repeat, "That oil belongs only to the Iraqi people."

In ten years everybody will be asking, "So why didn't you break OPEC when you had the chance? Why didn't you make a contract to get Iraqi oil at a decent price for the long term and only for the United States?"

Anybody ten years from now who admits he had the attitude Americans have right now will look like the cliche-mongering fool he is.

So everybody will say they were for it.

Only Whitaker mentions it, as usual. Only Whitaker will remember later how stupid everybody is right now.