THE DAILY GRIND 02/19/09

The New York Times' Roger Cohen is in Iran. After a half-dozen paragraphs of interesting stuff about the inner-workings of Persian politics, Cohen offers a painfully weak agenda for action. He says Obama "must abandon military threats to Iran’s nuclear program" recognizing the country’s "inevitable mastery" of nuclear power, but securing "verifiable conditions" to ensure they don't use that know-how to make atomic weapons.

Huh? If the United Sates abandons the military threat against Iran's nuclear weapons program what, exactly, is Iran's incentive to not build a nuclear bomb?

Cohen also has fallen prey to the propaganda that every issue in the Muslim world hinges on what happens between Israel and the Palestinians; a dictum which lets the Arab/Muslim world set the agenda, rather than the West. America, he says, tying American's Iranian policy to gaza and the West Bank, must recognize that "terrorist” is an inadequate description "of the broad movements that are Hamas and Hezbollah."

In return? Iran must reciprocate American movement on Hamas and Hezbollah "by ending its military, as opposed to political" support for them." (Not calling us "evil" and "the Great Satan" all the time would be cool, too. ) In other words, Iran can send money to buy Hamas and Hezbollah weapons, they just can't send the weapons themselves. The word "feckless" comes to mind.

The problem we have with Cohen's approach is that it seems based only one concerns about Iran; Iran's worries, Iran's problems, what Iran needs to feel safe and secure. An American writer, arguing for America's best interests in an American newspaper, should operate from the position that human rights and free markets are what matters most.

If feels like Cohen wants the United States to apologize to Iran for something -- probably out supporting the Shah of Iran. Okay, granted. The Shah sucked. But nobody alive now had much to do with that mess, so maybe it's time to let it go. Sure, Iran needs to be respected, but it doesn't need to be coddled. The Islamic Republic is a cruel, repressive regime, and the US doesn't need to apologize to them or anyone else.

After winning at Sunday’s Daytona 500, Roush-Fenway owner Jack Roush was back at his headquarters near Detroit this week promoting his company’s new line of propane-fueled Ford trucks and vans. Although Roush is best known for his NASCAR team and the fedora he wears in the pits, only about 500 of his 3,000 employees work in racing. The rest work on businesses that include engineering projects for the automotive industry -- like these propane conversions.

He is marketing mainly to large business fleets, as propane-powered trucks make the most sense for companies big enough to maintain their own refueling stations. The conversions costs about $9,000 for parts and installation on a Ford pickup and Roush says the cost will justify itself within a year. Propane-powered truck gets the same horsepower and torque as gas engines, but there's an approximate 13 percent drop in fuel economy because propane contains less energy than gas. Then again, wholesale propane prices are about $1 per gallon and propane burns cleaner than gasoline and generally doesn’t need to be imported because it is a byproduct of the oil refining process.

But more interesting than the story itself is the thinking behind it. Sure, propane power is just one alternative, not the solution to all our transportation needs. But it is a solution. In contrast to most businesses in Michigan, Roush is planning to expand. Where others see disaster and beg for government help, Roush sees an opportunity for growth.

“We’re getting ready for the upswing here,” Roush told the AP. “The automobile industry is going to survive. We’re going to morph ourselves into a shape where we can have better market share for the things that we do than we’ve had in the past. And life’s going to be good.”

Yeah, buddy. That's the kind of flinty optimism and can-do spirit Americans are supposed to have, not all the doom and desperation coming out of New York and DC.