…in new oilfields

The Texas governor, an oil man, was frustrated. A worldwide recession had begun a few months earlier, and it was being made worse by doubts about the world’s oil supply. The governor had threatened, and he had cajoled. But the rogue oil producers, who controlled a huge share of the world’s known oil reserves, wouldn’t cooperate.

So, the governor took the law into his own hands. He declared the producers to be “in a state of insurrection.” Their actions, he said, “openly, flagrantly and rebelliously violate the laws.” With that, the governor sent thousands of armed soldiers to overwhelm the rogues and take control of the oil fields.

The scenario sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Indeed, President Bush’s desire to rush U.S. troops into the deserts and oil fields of Iraq is eerily similar to the decision made seven decades ago by one of his predecessors in Austin… — Robert Bryce, Dallas Morning News