The Role of Myths in Our Climate-Energy Challenge

Abstract

I n the summer of 1990, as he announced his army’s surprise invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein told his people that the neighboring oil-rich country was rightfully theirs. Many believed him. When he announced Kuwait’s annexation, as Iraq’s 19th province, they celebrated with patriotic fervor. Several months later, a US-led military coalition, which included Arab states, threatened to expel the Iraqi occupiers. Undaunted, Hussein assured his people that their army would annihilate its foes in the “mother of all battles.” By this time, some Iraqis were probably questioning, at least to themselves, the veracity of Saddam’s claims. But under his brutal dictatorship there was little they could do. In early 1991, they watched in horror as coalition forces destroyed the fleeing Iraqi army. Thousands of their sons, brothers, and husbands were helplessly slaughtered in the desert by the massive firepower of the coalition. As George Orwell said, a battlefield provides a solid reality check on false beliefs. The US president who led the coalition was George H. W. Bush. His forces could easily have taken Baghdad and overthrownHussein. Instead, they halted their advance in southern Iraq and then withdrew. They had