People keep asking why we (the West with a big "W", or the United States and the Coalition of the Unwilling) invaded Iraq and then Afghanistan. People keep asking what possible interest we could have in what happens in Pakistan or Iran.
The answer may be found in a private briefing provided for the House Foreign Affairs Committee by the State and Defense Departments on March 9, 1983.
South and Southwest Asia is a region of critical strategic importance to the United States, presently threatened by Soviet expansionism. We are committed to the search for peace and stability within the region and to the safeguarding of the supply of oil critical to the U.S. and Western security.
Source: Passage to Peshawar by Richard Reeves, p. 196. Emphasis mine.
It's about the oil, stupid! In Walt's humble opinion, the U.S.A. has three options:
1) Decrease its consumption of oil and petroleum products. Some countries (Eire, Canada) have placed severe restrictions on the use of plastic bags for groceries. Will the US do so? Will we give up our love affair with SUVs and stretch Hummers that get about 2 mpg? Not likely.
2) Continue its struggle -- OK, let's call it the war that it is -- to control Afghanistan and the neighbouring countries. That means continuing to prop up the corrupt and incompetent governments of those countries. And it's a losing battle.
3) Find other, more secure sources of oil. China, which has similar problems and interests, isn't wasting lives and money in the Middle East. Instead they are buying up oilfields in Africa, Asia, even in Canada, as fast as they can. Yet American tree-huggers are telling Barry O'bama we should stop importing oil from Canada's tar sands because it's "dirty". As if Middle Eastern oil is clean! The only difference is the nature of the dirt.
Hello, Washington!!! Could we please have some truth-telling and common sense about oil? Please? Mid-term elections are coming. People are playing attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment