This is an intangible thing, but I think it’s a good bet that many Americans are putting off investments, whether in a new house or a new car, or even in a new business venture, because of fears of a wider war in the Middle East, or of an economic collapse here at home, or because of another jump in oil prices. Many people may not even be aware that they are making such calculations, and yet they are.
In short, Baily is wrong. The Iraq War is certainly having a profound negative effect on the US economy, in both short, and in long-term ways.
The worst of these effects will show up when, a decade or more hence, as the oceans are rising, coastal cities are being devastated by storm surges, and croplands are being parched, we will look back at the lost opportunities to act decisively on climate change that were squandered by an administration obsessed with making war on a group of Third World nations, and with grabbing control of a resource—oil--that it should have been working hard to replace altogether as an energy source.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006, and now available in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
In short, Baily is wrong. The Iraq War is certainly having a profound negative effect on the US economy, in both short, and in long-term ways.
The worst of these effects will show up when, a decade or more hence, as the oceans are rising, coastal cities are being devastated by storm surges, and croplands are being parched, we will look back at the lost opportunities to act decisively on climate change that were squandered by an administration obsessed with making war on a group of Third World nations, and with grabbing control of a resource—oil--that it should have been working hard to replace altogether as an energy source.
______________
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006, and now available in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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