Democracy and the price of oil

Re “Does Hugo Chavez have us over a barrel?” Opinion, Nov. 13

Michael Rowan and Douglas Schoen state that the price of oil without the “political premium” would be about $50 a barrel. They define the political premium as “uncertainty in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran’s suspected nuclear plans, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and social unrest in Pakistan, Nigeria and Venezuela.” While we can’t do anything about most of these issues, we are directly responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we are determined to keep troops in the Middle East, then we need to at least acknowledge this as our contribution to the high price of oil.

Greg Daniels

Canyon Country

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Rowan and Schoen’s penultimate sentence gives their game away. Their statement, “When democracy comes before economic development, you get a Chavez,” reveals that they are not concerned about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Rather, they are telling us openly of the great fear and loathing they have for democracy itself, and of the economic development that a vibrant democracy (as found in Venezuela) brings about.

Their statement should compel us to ask what other form of government the authors would have come before economic development, because they’ve made it clear that democracy isn’t their first choice.

And we might do well to consider that perhaps Rowan and Schoen’s statement also inadvertently reveals how much true democracy they actually want to see coming before our (or any other country’s) economic development -- zero.

Tom Wilde

Santa Monica

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Rowan and Schoen state that Chavez is seeking dictatorial powers by pushing sweeping reforms of the Venezuelan constitution. The Economist points out that his so-called reforms would allow him, when he sees fit, to declare any part of the country a “federal territory” ruled directly by him. Chavez also would be able to declare an indefinite state of emergency and suspend the right to information and to elements of due process.

Celebrities such as Sean Penn and Naomi Campbell help promote Chavez’s revolution through photo-ops with him. Not surprising because, as I recall, Penn, before the Iraq war, visited Saddam Hussein; and Campbell, according to the Wall Street Journal, referred to Cuban President Fidel Castro, despite his prohibiting free elections and imprisoning dissidents, as “a source of inspiration to the world.”

John F. Haggerty

Woodland Hills