Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on How Altruism Is Driving Our War in Libya

Just as with President George W. Bush's Iraq war, the Obama administration's "kinetic military action" in Libya is arrogant, reckless, cowardly, wasteful, foolish—and possibly illegal, given the lawsuit that a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed against it yesterday. But it is not a malevolent plot to secure cheap oil for the American economy, notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her latest column at The Daily:

The idea that oil lust drives America's Middle East policy is a perennial—and tired—saw invoked by U.S. critics both at home and abroad. But why, then, does America keep spurning this oil through sanctions on hostile regimes? In the decade between the two Iraq wars, America wouldn't let Saddam Hussein sell any oil except for food. Washington's sanctions on Iranian oil are costing America $38 billion to $76 billion annually in lost revenue. And America had sworn off Libyan oil until Gadhafi abandoned plans to develop weapons of mass destruction and compensated the victims of the Lockerbie terrorist bombing.

 Read the whole thing here.