The Following is a letter to the editor, which was submitted to the Fresno Bee on August 13th.
Don’t get too used to the lower gas prices. Now that Russia and Georgia are, arguably, at war, the oil pipeline running from the Caspian to the Black Sea, so vigorously supported by the Bush administration, is at risk.
The natural course of the pipeline should have been straight from Baku to Ceyhan, via Armenia. But since the Bush administration isn’t exactly thrilled with Armenia, due to its rightful deman’s that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and, following that, reparations from Turkey, the administration supported a gerrymandered pipeline route that ran it right through a country with at least three breakaway republics — hardly a place for a pipeline.
To make matters worse, the oil fields and the terminus are in countries that both blockade Armenia and desire its destruction. This country, and most notably this administration, has done a heck of a job picking the wrong friends at the wrong time. Armenia certainly has its issues, but if the pipeline ran through it, we could all rest assured of a steady flow of oil.
Marshall D. Moushigian