> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jack Neworth: The 1973 oil embargo and its lessons for today - URL: https://www.smdp.com/010408-story/ - Published: 2008-01-04T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T22:57:41.000Z - Author: Jack Neworth - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import I SUBMITTED THIS THURSDAY mornining with the Iowa caucus results many hours away. So I decided to write about a significant time in our history that has relevance today. It was right after the Yom Kippur war in 1973, which was a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria. Israel’s victory motivated the Arabs to impose an oil embargo on the U.S., western Europe and Japan, all of whom had helped Israel. It forced us into a rationing program where you could only buy gas on alternate days. (Now that crude oil is over $100 per barrel, soon you’ll only be able to buy gas after you get a second mortgage.) Even the shah of Iran, a brutal dictator we put in power, was in on it. “You Americans buy our crude and sell it back to us as petrochemicals at a hundred times the price. From now on, you should pay 10 times more for your oil.” Six years later the shah was in exile, proving, “time wounds all heels.” Furious, former President Richard Nixon and the oil companies’ attitude were, “How did our oil get under their sand?” With England’s aid, plans were drawn to invade an Arab country and seize its oil fields. This was documented in a joint intelligence report “UK Eyes Alpha” that was declassified by the Brits in 2003, (Just in time for invading Iraq?) If they wouldn’t sell us their oil, we’d just take it in a “pre-emptive action.” During his presidency Jimmy Carter stressed conservation and finding alternative energy so we wouldn’t have to rely on the sleazeballs who have the oil. (Can you say Saudi Arabia?) Carter even installed solar panels on the White House roof, but former President Ronald Reagan (the Republican God) removed the solar panels. Talk about vision. Twenty-nine years after Carter’s warnings our fearless leader, George Bush, (feckless is more like it) suddenly awoke in a State of the Union speech, declaring, “To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission, coal-fired plants; revolutionary solar and wind technologies; and clean, safe nuclear energy.” Notice the plug for nuclear. For neo-cons, with every disaster, from Katrina to Iraq, there’s always a no-bid contract. Unlike W, Gov. Schwarzenegger often seeks bi-partisan solutions. (Bush is “My way or the highway.”) Arnold may sue the EPA because of its rejection of California’s strict auto emissions law. But Bush thinks it’s a burden to the auto industry. We want clean air, they want money. Evidently the expression, “What’s good for General Motors is good for America,” isn’t always true. And what good is money when it’s not safe to breathe the air? Frankly, I’m not a fan of Arnold’s politics, ego or cigars. But my hat’s off to him on the environment. Not long ago W was proclaiming global warming as “just a theory.” (Gravity is also just a theory.) Of late he has come around a little, but apparently not if it’s going to cost car companies a few dollars. Arnold insists a state should be able to regulate air quality, but EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson declined his waiver request, saying, “The Bush Administration is moving forward with a clear, national solution.” Bush and clear solutions? It doesn’t compute. The law Bush just signed requires automakers to produce cars that get 35 miles per gallon, but not until 2020! (Until then, there’s always gas masks?) And what’s so amazing about 35 miles to a gallon? In college I had a VW that beat that. Early in JFK’s presidency he predicted we’d have a man on the moon at a time when we couldn’t fly a monkey over a duplex. We went to the moon and ahead of schedule. The oil embargo was 34 years ago. Why so little effort in alternative energy sources? Take a guess. One of my readers bristles at the suggestion the Iraq war was for oil. (Even though Alan Greenspan admitted it on “60 Minutes!”) He says repeatedly, “Show me the money.” How about crude currently at an all-time high of $100 a barrel? How about if/when the Iraqi parliament finally divides up the oil and gives out the lucrative refining contracts to U.S. and British oil companies? Gee, what a coincidence! Granted, if young Americans are going to perish in a war, terms like “liberation,” “Iraqi freedom,” and “fighting terrorism,” sound so much nobler than oil. Except, of course, they have nothing to do with why we invaded. Jack also writes “Channel Surfing,” a TV review column which appears in the Entertainment Section. He *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 4, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/010408.pdf?ref=smdp.com)