On Morality of War, Art Imitates Life

The last scene of Sydney Pollack's 1975 film, Three Days of the Condor, has eerie relevance to current events.

"Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?" Robert Redford's Joseph Turner asks Cliff Robertson's J. Higgins. A heated exchange ensues and Turner demands that the American people be consulted by their government regarding involvement in the region. "Ask them," Turner insists, before deciding to hunt for oil abroad.

But Higgins shoots back, "Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who've never know hunger start getting hungry. You want to know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to go get it for 'em."

Having squandered the opportunities to prepare for our current energy crisis through smart, progressive energy policies, we are now victims of the secretive 2001 Cheney Energy Task Force. We're behind the eight ball on building fuel efficient vehicles such as hybrids. Even T. Boone Pickens says we don't have a plan for energy independence. As a result, there are legitimate concerns about rising heating costs. Many people here in the northeast may be cold this winter. Across the country, the cost of gasoline and diesel affects Americans' everyday lives.

The increased flow of Iraqi oil might provide relief in the coming months. The Office of the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction reports that oil exports through Iraq's northern pipeline rose more than tenfold over the past year. Crude oil exports shot from 1 million barrels a month to 13 million.

So it may be easy, in the coming months, for Americans to forget the immorality of the Iraq War. But American foreign policy must be consistent with our interests as well as our morals. And as Americans, we might ask ourselves the same question Turner asks Higgins: "Do you think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?" It's a simple difference between what is right and wrong.

Comments

[UltraClassic]

The party of liberals and leftist democrats champion Hugo Chavez and falls into his "free energy" propoganda effort even has he initiates agreements with Russia for military cooperation.

At the same time, liberals and leftist democrats poopoo the administration's effort to get Iraq under control and are all to ready to declare defeat and blame it all on Bush. Liberals and leftist democrats seem to pine for the good old days of the butcher. Lucky for us, not every falls for this.

And lastly, the party of liberals and leftist democrats is so locked in step with the anti-energy crowd, they would rather sell their soul to Hugo Chavez than allow us to drill for oil and expand nuclear power.

No, liberals and leftist democrats have nothing to brag about.

[medi22]

Mr. Chaffee, Thank you for being a voice of reason and humaneness for so many years.

[leftLibertarian]

Both the Democrats and Republican are pathetic.

[waitforme]

This post has inspired eight (at this typing) thoughtful and sincere comments. But I am not sure what the author is saying. Is he saying to forget the immorality of the Iraq war, the hundreds of thousands of dead people resulting from it, the lies which got 'us' into it, the 'no-bid contracts' which make the administration cohorts rich, the incredible waste, the incredibly high-paid contractors who have no accountability which are overrunning Iraq by the hundreds of thousands? In favor of getting the oil that is there? Because people at home need it? Is this what he is saying, with his quotes from movie characters, which I don't actually get in this case? Wasn't this where we came in, going into Iraq 'for the oil' -- which everybody was saying? -- I simply can't understand all the talk about 'off-shore' oil drilling, going down 30,000 feet, with predictable leaks and killing of sea life, with predictable accidents with ruining of beaches and coastlines from here to there. I simply can't understand why 'we' don't leave the oil in a particular country to the countrypeople, in this case to the Iraqis, who need it mightily to restore their country to its original state before the U.S. co-opted it?

[PJay1]

I could be wrong, but the way I read it is that it may be easier to 'sell' something to people who are in survival mode. In this case, the 'sell' would be a new (or renewed) justification for the Iraqi invasion and occupation, which is that we'll get more foreign oil for less, which of course is a complete lie, imo.

I think, and I could be wrong, that this is a call to NOT fall for the snake oil (no pun intended) and to remember what you, Sen Chafee, and countless others are saying - that it IS indeed immoral regardless of the false promises.

Off shore drilling is another thing people are starting to fall for because people WANT to believe that it will help their situations. It won't.

[PJay1]

Senator Chafee as a running mate would be a winning ticket --- by a landslide!

Obama/Chafee '08

[WorkingClass]

"So it may be easy, in the coming months, for Americans to forget the immorality of the Iraq War".

You cant forget what you never knew. How many Americans are aware of the immorality of the Iraq War? Not many I would guess. Certainly not many in congress. If our representatives were obedient to any sort of morality that I know about, there would be no Iraq War.

[Boadicea]

Thanks for posting. I hope we hear more from you.

I used to be a Republican, too. When I saw how incompetent my party had become, I moved to independent, and I'm supporting Barack Obama. I hope you'll consider joining the growing ranks of Republicans for Obama who are working hard to return excellence to the White House.

[vaughan]

Thanks for a great post. I find this especially telling:

"Having squandered the opportunities to prepare for our current energy crisis through smart, progressive energy policies, we are now victims of the secretive 2001 Cheney Energy Task Force."

So true, and despite what you say, it will not be easy for this American to forget the moral issues involved with this war. I think about it as a mom, whenever I think of Iraqi moms losing their children to a war they never asked for, a war they were helpless to stop. I remember how the "No War for Oil" protesters were derided as crazy left-wingers. I guess they still are, but we should have listened to them.

[dadw5boys]

Right now American Businessmen have more rights in Iraq than the Iraqi Citizens do!!!!

[Forsetti]

Unfortunately, the immorality of the war has been lost because the debate has been reframed in such a way to shift the conversation away from the war to the surge. War=immoral, surge=good. To the neocons It really doesn't matter whether or not the discussion of the surge's success even yields any results. As long as the discussion focuses on the surge and away from the more important and fundamental questions and discussions that should be taking place, the warmongers will be happy and the immorality will continue.

[PJay1]

Judging from recent history, I doubt that the increased flow of Iraqi oil will help those who need it most.

Rather, it will likely line the already fat pockets of the greedy war profiteers (we know who they are).

No trickle down.
No help for the millions who can barely put food on the table, let alone fill their tanks (if they still have a vehicle) and heat their homes (if they haven't lost it).

"Morality of war" is of course, in the case of Iraq, an oxymoron.
It's not even a war. Let's not kid ourselves and just call it what it is.
It was an illegal invasion of a sovereign country that posed no present or future threat to the US and had nothing to do with the 9/11.

That illegal invasion has become an illegal and brutal occupation of a sovereign country.
Who is the enemy? Who are we fighting and why? What does 'winning' mean?

I have yet to hear any answers from those who lied us into it to those who rubber stamped it to those who want to keep us there indefinitely.

[jeanrenoir]

The neocons who concocted the Iraq War, and then botched it totally, sincerely and wrongheadedly think that they are moral heroes because they do everything they do for the "security" of Israel, to prevent another "Holocaust," etc. They're crazed moral fanatics, true believers whose careers have been devoted to doing well (political plum jobs) by doing "good" (co-opting American foreign policy to serve the interests of Israel). But the rest of us, including the solid majority of American Jews who remain liberals and are supporting Obama, evaluate the "morality" of the Iraq War by more broadly humanitarian standards than those compelling the behavior of the neocons and their superrich bankrollers, like Sheldon Adelson.

[budsgirl]

Mr. Chaffee,
I find it inexpressibly sad to read your post. Your voice is a voice in the wilderness, one of the last true examples of a party gone so badly astray. I'm proud to say I've been a Democrat for a long while now, but I still remember when Republicans were an honorable party. When we were all trying to get to the same place, even if by different roads.
Thank you for reminding me that not all Republicans are deliberately trying to destroy this country I love so much. I hope you and the few others who still remember yourselves will see the urgent need to split away from those who have wrecked your party.

[Americatortures]

Mr Chaffee...it is obvious this administration cares not one wit about morality ! Lying us into Iraq is a perfect example of the Immorality of Bu$hco-that and the lies about illegal wire-tapping should certainly stand as examples of high crimes and misdemeanors-all impeachable offenses!!