GREEN NEOCONS

There are more than you might imagine. I’m told by the Sunday Times’ Sarah Baxter that at a Hudson Institute confab last September, several pro-war neocons and others came out in favor of energy conservation. Bernard Lewis argued: “There is only one solution and that is to find another source of energy besides oil. It seems to me to be the only way we can put an end to this poison which fouls the sea and the roads and pollutes minds.” David Pryce-Jones cited V.S. Naipaul on the strategic importance of a more enviro-friendly energy policy. “You must make it plain to people,” Naipaul had urged Pryce-Jones that morning, “that they face a choice between saying it’s more convenient for the sake of oil to keep the Saudis going and taking a stand against them. If they hesitate to make that choice, they are gambling with civilisation.” You can read an alternative view here.