Quote:
Originally Posted by u-Bob
oil? hehe, do people really stil believe this had anything to do with oil? lol
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Of course it is to do with oil, although not in the narrow sense of Iraq's own (current) production.
The Middle East is Catch-22 for US foreign policy in the region. US response to the beginnings of Arab nationalism was to foster instability. Although many of those activities worked in the short term, longer term they encouraged nationalism, Moslem fundamentalism and anti-American sentiment. The more embedded these trends became, the fewer were the options for covert manipulation and the less effective such manipulation was. By the time of the first Gulf War, military intervention had become almost inevitable, unless there were to be an about-face in US foreign policy. Which was hardly likely...
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia source more than 20% of the world's oil. They account for around 50% of the world's proven crude and gas reserves. Nominally Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are friendly countries, but both are ruled by unpopular regimes which, if overthrown, would be replaced by people likely to be as anti-American as the governments of Iran is and Iraq was. This is evidenced by the reality that - with little attempt at secrecy - most terrorist funding comes out of Saudi Arabia.
There are other sources of oil, notably Latin America. But our intervention in the internal affairs of countries to our south has hardly made us any more popular there than we are in the Middle East. Meanwhile, although we have had decades in which to react, we have done almost nothing to reduce our dependence on cheap oil. It is still the basis of the US economy and in many respects, our way of life.
So of course our activities in Iraq are all about oil. So are our activities in Afghanistan. It isn't just coincidence that the only areas of the world in which the "War on Terror" is being actively fought, have strong ties to oil. It may be that our activities will buy no more than a decade for the Al-Sauds and the Al-Sabahs, then our own chickens will come home to roost in a big way as well. But I guess our policymakers are hoping that since we cannot turn the clock back, something may happen to allow us to buy a little more time, then maybe a little more.