Porter ties U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to $9 gasoline: Lawmaker reports on his trip to country
WASHINGTON — Gasoline prices could rise to about $9 per gallon if the United States withdraws troops from Iraq prematurely, Rep. Jon Porter said he was told on a trip to Iraq that ended this week. The Nevada Republican, who returned Tuesday from his fourth trip to Iraq, met with U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Iraqi Deputy President Tariq al-Hashimi and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh…. “To a person, they said there would be genocide, gas prices in the U.S. would rise to eight or nine dollars a gallon, al-Qaida would continue its expansion, and Iran would take over that portion of the world if we leave,” Porter said Wednesday in a phone interview from Las Vegas. Porter did not elaborate on the assessment that gasoline prices could spike. His spokesman, Matt Leffingwell, said afterward that the scenario “makes sense if Iran moves into Iraq.”…. Porter “can’t speculate directly on what is going to happen with gas prices, but the market prices for oil reflect the stability in that region,” Leffingwell said.
Our latest DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener is apparently willing to swallow any sort of insane b.s. if it’s spouted by someone who happens to support his point of view. Regardless of what you might believe about the war in Iraq, using the possibility of a sharp rise in gas prices as justification for keeping our troops there is about as insulting and offensive as anything I’ve heard emanate from the Right side of the aisle. Never mind the fact that the people making the analogy between an American presence in Iraq and controlled oil prices are generals and politicians, hardly experts on the subject. That’s OK, though, because these men are true, red-blooded American patriots, and they know of which they speak.
For Jon Porter to pick up on and parrot these talking points only serves to point up how tied some Republicans are to their vision of the war in Iraq as some sort of grand crusade against the forces of Evil. Sure, young Americans are being slaughtered, but they’re being sacrificed to protect good, God-fearing Americans (and their inalienable right to affordable gasoline). Besides, if we don’t fight the terrorists over there, we’re probably going to have to fight them here. Right??
I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to sacrifice a single American life so that I may be able to pump affordable gas. For Porter to intimate that this sort of sacrifice is a legitimate and worthy cause is something for which I’m not even certain I can find words adequate to properly express my outrage.
Here’s an idea: if Porter feels so strongly about the war in Iraq, how about he show some cojones and explains this to a room full of those who’ve lost loved ones in Iraq. With any luck, someone will beat him to death with his own ignorant, self-absorbed rhetoric.
Jeebus, what a (&^%$#@ DUMB@$$….
