Aneri Jambusaria: War worth the oil

"One, two, three, four, we don't want your oil war."

It was the infamous morning of Vice President Dick Cheney's visit and more than 500 banner-waving protesters were marching down Locust Walk. I was there, too, not as a member of the parade, but instead as a spectator who never misses a show.

But I was left grossly unsatisfied that morning; after a year at Penn, the typical protest rants against big business and big oil no longer seem to have the same effect, with the same arguments repeated in the same fashion, save only the changing backdrop of Afghanistan or West Philadelphia.

Granted, that day was only three weeks ago, but the world has since changed. President Bush has received strong United Nations support for taking action in Iraq and Republicans have regained control of the Senate. The "oil war" is becoming more and more real, and the costs on either side more clear than ever.

So before you pick up your signs and march to the White House, I ask only that you take a minute and think about one of your key protests. Yes, the desire to prevent the loss of human life (amongst other things) is certainly compelling, but is an "oil war" in its purest form really such a bad thing?

Let's begin by taking a look behind us -- namely, at lessons from our past. Around this time right before the Gulf War, similar debates were occurring nationwide as liberals and conservatives butted heads over whether the "black gold" was worth fighting for.

Led by a president, the first George Bush, who has open ties to the oil industry, the United States tried to pull itself out of a recession by taking action in the Middle East. Put aside the facade of restoring Kuwait's righteous dictator, our oil interests were on the line and our armed forces were willing to fight to ensure that they would remain.

And the rest, as they say, is history. We beat the bad guys, kept our oil and pulled out of the recession, bringing forth the greatest era of prosperity in American history. Soon afterward, the Asian boom took off and, by the late '90s, most of the globe had prospered economically to some extent thanks to our action in Iraq. The world wasn't perfect -- but it was undoubtedly the best we've seen.

So what does this mean? While issues like the livelihood of Iraqi citizens and purported Iraqi terrorist influence will undoubtedly play a part in whether or not you support our current war movement, it is simply unwise to block out the positive economic implications of our taking action.

Maintaining a comfortable standard of living for all Americans is an important issue to a great number of us, as many student groups have shown through advocating programs to further economic human rights in the West Philadelphia area. The dedicated Penn students who have volunteered their time by helping lower income individuals know first-hand how difficult the recession of the past year and a half has been for those in need.

Keeping in mind the negative impact of a bad economy, especially for those in need, take note that seven of the past nine recessions were preceded by spikes in oil prices. Our economy is already experiencing one of the largest slumps in American history. If we do not take action in Iraq and oil prices take off, there's no telling what will happen to the markets; consequently, the livelihood of ourselves, our fellow Americans and -- as globalization has taught us -- the rest of the world.

Economic recovery is worth fighting for. Yes, big corporations certainly need to grow up in many respects, but that progress is not one that will occur by failing to give these businesses a chance to change and to succeed. Anti-war protests are not the forum to take out our aggressions on the vile actions of a few CEOs.

The long-term economic benefits will span far wider than just corporate America, as new jobs will offer new opportunities for the unemployed both domestically and abroad. And while oil is an easy target to protest, it's not necessarily the strongest argument in favor of the well being of the world.

We, as a nation, have a choice. We can either re-grasp the global prosperity that has eluded us these past two years or forego it for other, still valid, reasons at the price of domestic and worldwide poverty. Our history is clear, but the decision is yours.

Five, six, seven, eight: don't like oil? You're a little too late.

Aneri Jambusaria is a sophomore Finance concentrator from Monroeville, Pa.

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