Bush Passes the Buck on Soaring Gas Prices

First, it's those damned Chinese and Indians, trying to be more like us.

Second, it's you and me, driving more because the weather's nice..

Finally, high prices result from the (otherwise) routine change from winter- to summer-blend gasoline.

The standoff with Iran over its nuclear program didn't even merit mention, as if Bush's recent threats are directed a Martians.

Today, however, the AP spun the story thusly: "Crude-oil prices broke through $75 a barrel to hit a new record Friday, fueled by concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions and tight U.S. gasoline supplies."

It isn't as though people don't recognize the difference between what Bush says, and reality on the other side. We're just resigned to this administration making up its own narrative to keep things bobbling along--at least until the next disaster.

What's odd is the AP's own construction of a narrative that--if not in total agreement with the administration's--makes Washington out as a passive, rather than active, player in the story.

Whose concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, after all, is driving this "crisis," anyway?

So far, Iranian nuclear "threat" is premised on a fanciful scenario where the mullahs or President Ahmadinejad acquire a nuclear weapon, and promptly, without heed to consequences use it to annihilate the state of Israel.

On the other hand, the Bush administration's neo-con cadre is fully prepared to conduct a "preventive" strike against Iran--perhaps using nuclear weapons--to promote world peace and non-proliferation--and just incidentally remove a regime that has been in their sights at least as long as Saddam.

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http://counterpunch.org/pahnales04222006.html