Writer’s logic leaves much to be desired

Guest commentator John Lindstrom concludes that United States citizens, having an insatiable appetite for oil, are the world’s real enemy and that the war to liberate Iraq is merely a pretense to confiscate the unrefined oil lying fallow under the sand. He asserts that “the enemy is us.”

Citing everything from the Bible to a cartoon character named Pogo, he contends that because we constitute only 4 percent of the world’s population, we should not consume more than 4 percent of the world’s petroleum. But then, how would Mr. Lindstrom justify the fact that the United States also produces more than 40 percent of the world’s corn? Or that we export 12 percent of the world’s manufactured goods? Don’t we grow 10 times as much corn and manufacture three times as much as the rest of the world’s population? Does that seem “fair” as Mr. Lindstrom defines the word?

If we were to follow Mr. Lindstrom’s advice, Iraq should leave its oil in the ground, and we should not trade for it by providing the other 96 percent of the world’s people with food, access to farm tractors, power generating equipment, scientific instruments, telecommunication equipment and airplanes. Thus, our grandchildren could live in an undeveloped world similar to the Okeefanokee Swamp where Pogo lives.

I would rather salute our troops and hold the course we are on.

Everett