Mideast Oil and U.S. Troops in Saudi Arabia

Because the Middle East has most of the world’s oil reserves, the region will be a problem until sufficient alternate fuels are developed to take the place of oil. Our government and the energy companies have known about this problem for years.

As pointed out by President Carter in the late 1970s, the oil problem is the moral equivalent of war. Part of Carter’s response to the oil shortage was to call for conservation and to initiate alternative-fuel research, although these measures were later canceled by the Reagan Administration. Now, a decade later, we realize that Carter was correct. The world’s oil reserves will be gone within the first half of the next century.

Who will control the final pool of oil in the Middle East while it is being depleted? This is a critical question, and its answer involves the reason why the United States reacted so quickly to the crisis. If Saddam Hussein were to be left unchecked, he could easily control the economic destiny of the entire world.

President Bush and the United Nations need to take this opportunity to create safeguards rather than obfuscate the issue with talk of war. Gulf oil is a permanent world problem that requires a permanent solution. We must spend money on the problem, but let us spend it for diplomacy, and a permanent and peaceful solution. One permanent solution could be, for example, to establish a U.N. presence headed by a coalition of Middle Eastern countries. Pay for peace, not war.

President Bush must establish a clear energy policy for our country. While it is reprehensible that Hussein has taken over Kuwait, this does not threaten American security, as does the much larger potential threat to oil supplies.

Mr. President, you have a chance to lead the world into the next century with a long-term and peaceful solution to one of its major problems--energy. You have a chance to break the historic chain of reaction and war.

RICHARD V. FISHER, Professor of Geology, UC Santa Barbara