Are we beating the war drums? Do people in the US see the need to go blow shit up in the Middle East nowadays? I don't. Much better to let Allah handle it. Allah has a lot to play with there, ISIS and all that. Do people get it that ISIS is controlled by the West? That seems to be the truth of the matter, gotta love people with brilliant and bold strategies like that. Do we need Oil? Hardly, if we got busy with solar power and use of our own natural resources for energy we could kiss the whole ME off. We could use space based laser weapons to wall it off, burn everything that crosses the line drawn around the whole area and just check on them about once every other hundred years or so. Nothing in and nothing out... Does anybody want to try real hard to bring the ME out of the 7th century? Is that somebody's idea of "the pursuit of happiness?". Seriously?
And that's pretty much it. Except for the laser weapon thing. It's all about oil, just as it has been for a century. ISIS is Oz and oil is the man behind the curtain. And the US is the only country that can stop them from taking over the Saudi oilfields (since Europe still thinks it's 1942 and waits for us to take care of the problem). And so we manufacture a mandate to go on with this almost-25-year-old war. We scratch our heads at the idea of a 100 Years War. Well . . .
the problem is Israel. Without our support I doubt it could survive. Ignoring the middle east is tantamount to turning your back on Israel. What's next? Turning our back on South Korea? Turning our back on Japan?
I think Israel would be fine without us, we have held them them back from taking matters into their own hands.... It's the US who would suffer if we withhold support.
about the only thing that could ever unify the whole middle east would be if we told them, "If you want to destroy Israel, go ahead, not our problem."
That exact scenario is going to take place, with or without the US's involvement. Just watch out for the person who strikes the peace treaty between the Muslim Coalition and Israel.
Good post! And hell, we could have been energy independent long ago. So much CL here, and surrounding areas. And nat gas? We're the world leader of it!
it was never about the quantity of oil, it was about the control of oil. Yes, we can drill $100 CL, but if Saudi sells Russia and China $90 CL, that kind of puts us in a bind.