Here is the background. Vice President Richard Cheney heads a White House energy task force, and it has been reported that a recent draft report calls for the United States to review economic restrictions against Iran, Iraq and Libya. On the face of it, the report reflects common sense. The United States, and the rest of the oil-importing world, have an interest in exploiting sources of petroleum. We are not exactly down to our last few barrels, but as motorists have observed, the price of gasoline at the pump has lately been rising.
Consumers are angry.
One obvious solution is to purchase petroleum where the price is cheap and supply is plentiful. Easier said than done. That would mean doing business with the ayatollahs in Tehran, Colonel Khadafy and Saddam Hussein. We are not only constrained from doing so by legislation, but by politics as well. And the number of politicians willing to contemplate coming to economic terms with these gentlemen is severely limited.