Nevada Senator Harry Reid seems to be worried about the hidden costs of fossil fuels.  Maybe he should consider the hidden costs of a pathetically inept national energy policy. If we were not so dependent on foreign sources of crude oil, our national interest in the Persian Gulf region would be about zero.  Instead, we have had to fight two oil wars there in the last twenty years, the 1990-91 Gulf War and the Iraq War, and been involved in a third, more covert war, with Iran since the Carter Administration. The cost has been thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Unfortunately, Democrats like Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seem intent on insuring that we are in thrall to the House of Saud for generations to come. If they are successful, our vital national interest in the Gulf will continue. If we choose to defend those interests, (a decision that is by no means sure in a Democrat administration), then Iraq will not be the last of costly oil wars.

When one reads the executive summary of the Iraq Study Groups's Report, you cannot help but wonder how such a group of accomplished and distinguished people can exhibit such collective stupidity.  Allow me to cite one example to illustrate.

One of the major recommendations is that the US engage Iran and Syria diplomatically to include them in finding a solution to the Iraq problem.  To support this, the summary actually makes the statement, (and I am not making this up), that Syria and Iran have a national  interest in preventing chaos in Iraq. Let's just look for a moment at Iran.  Iran is under tremendous pressure from the rest of world, led by the US, to halt their nuclear program.  Part of this pressure is the very real threat that the US could resort military action or even invasion to back up its diplomatic full court press.  If the US could be inhibited from using its military power, this would be a good thing for Iran.  Accordingly, part of their overall defense strategy is to keep the US military tied up in Iraq, something they are actively doing by training and supplying militias in Iraq that create the chaos we are now seeing.  In other words, the Iranian's actions suggest that their national interest is just the opposite of what the Study Group assumes. 

If the study group's assumptions about reality are wrong, then their recommendations are probably flawed.  Since John Kerry made this same recommendation several weeks ago, I think it's safe to assume it's horribly wrong.