Today’s lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal makes the excellent point that Hussein’s oil stoppage is “a stupid and futile gesture.”

I couldn’t agree more. “It will neither help the Palestinians nor hurt the global economy,” the Journal writes, then continues, “though it is one more reason for President Bush to begin marshaling his coalition to depose Saddam.” Huh? If Hussein’s action is so harmless, why does it provide any rationale for ousting him?

The Journal’s editorial writers are again on the mark when they write:

What matters much more to the price of oil — and there is only one global price — are events in Venezuela. That country exports 2.5 million barrels a day, and for six weeks President Hugo Chavez, a Fidel Castro wannabe, had been messing around with the state-run oil company. And indeed after the military forced Mr. Chavez to resign Friday, oil prices dropped to just above $23 a barrel, after surpassing $28 a week earlier.

So Venezuela matters much more than Iraq, and things look to be going in the right direction there, precisely because Venezuelans punished their leader for trying to use their oil reserves as a political tool. They export 1 billion more barrels of oil a day than does Iraq. Sounds good. But the Journal editorial then concludes:

And if [Dubya] really doesn’t want to worry about an Iraqi embargo, he can go to the source of so many security problems and finish the job his father started against Saddam.

What? The entire editorial is about how what Hussein is doing is of little lasting consequence, and concludes with a call for Dubya to take out Saddam. If you can follow this logic, please enlighten me, as I’m a little lost. Wouldn’t a war on Iraq make other Arab dictatorships nervous about their own future and more likely to manipulate their own oil supplies for political reasons? Iraq is not the only country in the region hostile to the United States, and Hussein is not the only ruthless dictator in the region.

Taking on the entire Middle East is not a good idea and, furthermore, is completely unnecessary — as the first half of the Journal editorial makes clear — since the price of oil is global and not completely or even mostly dependent on the Middle East. Oh, well. I guess the answer to every question nowadays is to take out Saddam. Perhaps Dubya will somehow find a way to pin the Enron situation on him too.