McCain is depicted as a man of integrity, as one who commands an inner core of strong values, a man of principles. But, he has veered to the right to gain the GOP nomination; he changed his mind on several key policy issues (e.g. on extending the Bush tax cuts). But all this is not nearly as revealing of the true nature of his political character as his call to lift the tax on gasoline (albeit, for now only for the summer). It is a very revealing move.

As I -and for once I am hardly alone--see it, the United State must impose a hefty tax on oil. Before I list the obvious reasons (often enumerated by Tom Friedman in The New York Times) that such a tax is vital, I should note that McCain is not alone. Not a single politician running for major office has called for raising the tax on gasoline, although McCain is the only one who favors lowering it. Other major candidates suggested various tax cuts (or "incentives") that they would introduce, designed to get Americans to use more Ethanol, buy hybrid cars, and other wise go "green." These may all be good ideas, but they are not going to get the job done. A tax on oil is crucial both to discourage the use of oil and to finance other goodies.

A five dollar tax on every oil barrel would enhance our security by reducing our dependency on our enemies and adversaries. It would reduce the scores upon scores of billions of dollars the United States is now sending each month to Putin's Russia, to Ahmadinejad's Iran, to the mother of all 9/11 terrorists, Saudi Arabia and other such good friends. These nations, in turn, use the oil funds to counter US policies overseas, to shore up their regimes at home, to purchase arms, and--in Iran's case--to finance terrorists groups.

Also, the higher costs of oil will encourage the development of alternative, renewable sources of energy and curtail global warming. In other words, a five-dollar tax will do wonders for the environment. To ensure that the poor can afford to purchase heating fuel and gasoline, some of the resulting tax revenues should be dedicated to provide energy stamps to those in need, so that they could purchase oil at reduced costs.

In addition, the scores of billions such a tax would generate can be used--take your pick and mix--to reduce the deficit, to finance social programs, or to make Social Security whole, among other goodies.

What is particularly distressing about the across-the-board failure of our politicians to tell the truth to the voters--to explain why a tax on oil is essential and overdue--is that it does not take nearly as much courage as it at first seems to. A good part of the tax will, in effect, be paid by the oil producing countries, because there are limits to the ability of oil producers to pass the tax burden along to the consumers.

I guess at the end of the day one has to hold one's nose and vote for someone. They are not making this choice easy. Not even the so-called Mr. Integrity, Senator John McCain.

Amitai Etzioni is Professor of International Relations at the George Washington University and, most recently, the author of Security First: For A Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy (Yale University Press, 2007) www.securityfirstbook.com. To contact him, email comnet@gwu.edu