William F. Buckley Jr., An Appreciation, An Interlude on Oil

Bill Buckley was a great man, a giant among mere mortals. No need here to detail his many feats and accomplishments. Tributes to him abound in journals throughout the land.

For me, in commemoration, a few words of homage and thanks are in order. Just under three years ago my book, Over a Barrel, was published. It was the result of a lonesome quest to confront and expose the machinations of the oil market and the malign manipulations of the OPEC cartel. To alert whomever would listen to the nascent security, economic and environmental danger we were facing, and would continue to face with ever growing intensity.

It was a fool's mission, most especially so in that those the book held to account had everything on their side: endless money, access, government and media. After waiting too long for others to express outrage over what was happening in energy markets and with growing frustration at the ringing silence, I had decided to proceed on my own. Of course once the book was published its premise was so at variance with accepted wisdom and the vested interests of too many and the powerful that few took notice. But there was one exception -- William F. Buckley, Jr.

Shortly after its publication WFB,Jr. wrote a column for National Review online (NRO) - "Looking Ahead-Oil; What could happen if we continue to go as we are going" (8/12/05), commenting about the book. The book, in his words, was "... memorable in the special sense that a nightmare can be memorable... about what could happen if we continue as we are going". That was nearly three years ago, oil was at the $60/bbl threshold and much of the nightmare predicted was about to come about or is at the very cusp of coming to fruition.

No, Bill Buckley's column did not make the book a 'best seller' by any stretch of the imagination. But it did highlight the character of the man. Righteous and brave, unafraid to tread where too many others are wary.

Given the book's focus on the manipulation of the price of oil and in parts on its largest producer, let me reiterate WFB's admonition found in the last paragraph of his column, making it clear that he understood where our dependence on oil and our growing subservience to its suppliers was taking us. That he understood the big picture so much more clearly than others purportedly more expert on this issue than he. I quote:

"It was 20 years ago that the U.S. and the Saudi's arrived at a deal. The Saudis would set prices so as to protect the U.S. oil industry. And the U.S. would protect the Saudi's independence. We regret that and should make the Saudis regret it also."

Comments

[TxAggie]

The Saudis and the U.S made a "deal to protect the US oil companies"? If so they did a piss poor job of it!! Was part of the deal the 800,00 lost jobs in the 80'S? The Saudis have no interest whatsoever in protecting US Oil COmpanies- we stand between them and total domination of the market- although they are doing a pretty good job of it in spite of our (the industry's ) efforts.

[PacificGatePost]

Mr. Learsy,

Misplaced loyalties at the top have damaged the U.S. tax payers and decimated the economy. There are solutions and oil dependence absolutely has be reversed: -

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/02/yyyyyyyy-yyyyyyyyy.html

Meanwhile Washington has no choice but to deal with the substantial pools of (oil) capital that have been created by foreign governments antipathetic to our socioeconomic and political structures as well as our way of life....

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/02/america-for-sale.html

If anyone is listening, new RULES will have to change the landscape of the not so "free trade" relationships existing with some countries.

[desmirl]

William F. Buckley, Jr. was America's prototype CHICKENHAWK. A fierce WARMONGER, he never had the courage to wear a uniform and protect America from it's enemies. His greatness was that he was an overbearing loudmouth without the necessary courage to stand up for his beliefs. There WAS NOTHING GREAT ABOUT BUCKLEY.

[BeNice]

You are wrong.

Buckley was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army in 1944.
Later, he worked for the CIA.

Please try to be factual in the future.

[Sundialsvc4]

There are a great many esteemed thinkers whose words we have ignored: not only yours(!), and Mr. Buckleys, but also and perhaps most tragically, General of the Army (and President) "Ike" Eisenhower.

The hard truth is that the course that a gang of rogues have laid for (and laid upon) our Country leads only to warfare ... and yet, in the end, is also completely un-sustainable. It is a course that tries to put The United States dominant above everyone else (in the sense of "under an imperial thumb") but which offers the subjugated no incentive ... as if there could ever be one ... to remain there. "Then, the oil runs out, and all the Dollars you think you hold are nothing more than 1's and 0's."

I don't think that Americans really understood what happened when the Berlin Wall was dismantled. It was not really anything that America did. Instead, both the Russians and the Germans outgrew it, rejected it, threw off that yoke as pointless waste, and moved on. The Europeans went on to create a European Union; South American countries are well on their way to doing the same; the Cold War politics of "a Big Fist and Fear" are left behind. But the rogues in Washington today are a scion of it, cannot hold on to power without it, and will sacrifice their own nation in an increasingly desperate (and increasingly savage) bid to preserve what the world itself has now rejected.

[bauersox]

You were WFB's brother-in-law, right?