To stop war, create an economic lever

Tom Friedman argues in today's NYT that "if we put all our focus on reducing the price of oil [w]e will force more reform than by any other strategy ... By refusing to rein in U.S. energy consumption, the Bush team is not only depriving itself of the most effective lever for promoting internally driven reform in the Middle East, it is also depriving itself of any military option." Right on!

I now await numbers on exactly how much the U.S., which represents roughly 25% of global oil consumption, would have to reduce its demand to produce the price reductions that Friedman's talking about. Anybody? Council on Foreign Relations? Cato? C'mon, Cato, I know y'all have some intern that could figure it out ... get that guy off of clip-pasting duty and onto a computer.