Whispers from the Wild

This is getting ridiculous.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

Source: Reuters

Firstly, America has absolutely NO jurisdiction over any other part of the world. With its opting out of the international court of justice (in case said court wants to prosecute members of the Bush administration) America has declared that no organisation or country can override its own supreme court, so what the hell does America think it’s doing trying to dictate to other countries?

Secondly, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. America is reliant on OPEC’s oil. There is still a misconception that OPEC’s reliance on America as a customer is far worse than America’s reliance on OPEC as a supplier. This was once the case, but not any more. OPEC has China, Russia, Japan and the EU as customers. Yes, it will hurt if there is an economical war between OPEC and America, but it won’t destroy OPEC. It will, however, destroy America.

Thirdly, I’ve heard it often trumpeted “When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”. Well, not any more. The US economy isn’t #1 in the world any more, and it is seriously reliant on countries like Saudi Arabia keeping selling their oil in US dollars, trading in US dollars and most importantly pinning its currency to the US dollar. If it decides to go with the stronger Euro, America is screwed. Already, if someone in Saudi Arabia coughs about depinning the currency the US has to be rushed to hospital with severe financial respiratory distress.

Fourth, how do they intend to enforce this? Which part of “f*** you Mr Bush” which is basically what Saudi Arabia said the last time Bush went cap in hand to beg for cheaper oil, don’t they understand? So an American oil company successfully sues OPEC in the US courts – who’s going to enforce it?

And last but not least, the “support the troops” mantle so apparently important to Republicans is harmed spectacularly here. If they piss Saudi Arabia off so much that it unpins its currency and starts trading oil in the stronger Euro, that leaves all the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan stranded, as there isn’t either enough oil for fuel to fly that many home, or enough money to charter other people to do it (since the dollar would become worthless in days if Saudi Arabia, and OPEC, decide to ditch the US Dollar.

This is really a huge sign of the way America has become; litigious and blame-shifting. That it would appear to be a solution to sue someone else still comes as a more palatable option than trying to find alternatives to the reliance on oil, speaks volumes about how America has buried its head in the proverbial sand.

And to put icing on the cake, the only really stupid piece of legislation that really deserves Bush’s threatened veto and it looks as if they would override it. You couldn’t make this stuff up…