It Really Is All About The Oil
02/05/07 17:43
I've been nosing around over at TPM Cafe and I ran across this post by former FCC Chairman
(Clenis administration) Reed Hundt. His latest
offers some real insight into the mind of
Vice-President Cheney:
Of course anyone who's read much of the PNAC manifesto already knew that US access to Middle East oil is the most important thing in Darth Cheney's world. Yes, I'm pounding on PNAC again. I can't help myself. I wish I had the power to give every American citizen a homework assignment. It would go like this: 1) Read every word on the PNAC website. 2) Discuss. For the Vice-President, oil is what makes the world go 'round and controlling it is what keeps rich and powerful men rich and powerful. Cheney and his ilk have managed to merge our nation's economy and it's security to the point where the US military is nothing more than a tool of US capitalism, wielded not in our defense, but to preserve US economic advantage.
Cheney and his PNAC posse begin their analysis of every situation regarding the Middle East from the position that the US absolutely will have access to the oil. I've heard dubya use this same bent logic to justify continuing (and escalating) his incredible Iraqi abortion. He keeps insisting we have to stay the course in order to keep the oil revenue out of the hands of jihadists. That sounds pretty reasonable when accepted at face value because it seems obvious that we wouldn't want to give billions of dollars to batshit crazy suicidal religious fanatics. The problem is the ingrained assumption that we not only must buy the oil, but that we must allow it to be sold at all.
What if we pulled our troops out of Iraq? They are not having much luck making people who have hated each other for centuries get along anyway, so what if we just re-deployed them to the border areas and gave them the new mission of not allowing any oil to leave Iraq until a stable (and sane) government was established? It seems to me it would be a hell of a lot easier for our military to prevent any oil exportation than it is to prevent civilians from blowing each other up. Sure, the reduced supply would drive oil prices up and parts of our economy would be adversely affected, but it would also jump-start a serious effort in this country to do what should have been done decades ago; begin moving away from fossil fuels. Following the leadership of dinosaurs like Dick Cheney, who got rich maintaining the status quo, is why the US has been OPEC's bitch since the 1970s.
But reinforcing the American military commitment to the Middle East is the maxim of the Administration. It is the Vice President's essential thesis: the American military must be firmly installed in the Middle East until the end of oil, and until anti-American Islamic fervor fades away, no matter how long that may take. He sees American dependence on Middle Eastern oil lasting at least 60 to 80 years, . . . He sees armed opposition to Islamic fundamentalism as lasting at least as long as the Cold War, and of course he thinks of the conflict as the successor to the Soviet threat against capitalism and democracy.
Of course anyone who's read much of the PNAC manifesto already knew that US access to Middle East oil is the most important thing in Darth Cheney's world. Yes, I'm pounding on PNAC again. I can't help myself. I wish I had the power to give every American citizen a homework assignment. It would go like this: 1) Read every word on the PNAC website. 2) Discuss. For the Vice-President, oil is what makes the world go 'round and controlling it is what keeps rich and powerful men rich and powerful. Cheney and his ilk have managed to merge our nation's economy and it's security to the point where the US military is nothing more than a tool of US capitalism, wielded not in our defense, but to preserve US economic advantage.
He thinks that tactics may need to be changed, but the prospect of greater violence spreading from Iraq across the region only underscores the importance of the strategic goal: locking in American access to the region's resources and precluding the formation of significant military power under the control of any Islamic theocratic regime.
Cheney and his PNAC posse begin their analysis of every situation regarding the Middle East from the position that the US absolutely will have access to the oil. I've heard dubya use this same bent logic to justify continuing (and escalating) his incredible Iraqi abortion. He keeps insisting we have to stay the course in order to keep the oil revenue out of the hands of jihadists. That sounds pretty reasonable when accepted at face value because it seems obvious that we wouldn't want to give billions of dollars to batshit crazy suicidal religious fanatics. The problem is the ingrained assumption that we not only must buy the oil, but that we must allow it to be sold at all.
What if we pulled our troops out of Iraq? They are not having much luck making people who have hated each other for centuries get along anyway, so what if we just re-deployed them to the border areas and gave them the new mission of not allowing any oil to leave Iraq until a stable (and sane) government was established? It seems to me it would be a hell of a lot easier for our military to prevent any oil exportation than it is to prevent civilians from blowing each other up. Sure, the reduced supply would drive oil prices up and parts of our economy would be adversely affected, but it would also jump-start a serious effort in this country to do what should have been done decades ago; begin moving away from fossil fuels. Following the leadership of dinosaurs like Dick Cheney, who got rich maintaining the status quo, is why the US has been OPEC's bitch since the 1970s.
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