Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

     

Left Nav S-B Home Register FAQ Members List S-B on Facebook Arcade WEAX Tides Buoys Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Right Nav

Left Container Right Container
 

Go Back   Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating » Striper Chat - Discuss stuff other than fishing ~ The Scuppers and Political talk » Political Threads

Political Threads This section is for Political Threads - Enter at your own risk. If you say you don't want to see what someone posts - don't read it :hihi:

 
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 10-19-2007, 07:35 AM   #1
fishpoopoo
Wipe My Bottom
iTrader: (0)
 
fishpoopoo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,911
Smile oil, bush, cheney, iraq, etc.

interesting read. iraq isn't/wasn't about bush cheney and oil.

(blah blah blah)

Quote:
Geopolitical Diary: Revisiting Oil

Over the past few days the price of crude oil has hit fresh peaks, with $90 a barrel seemingly just around the corner. In such an environment it is worth revisiting the geopolitical importance of oil.

The first and most important issue with petroleum is to recognize how it does and does not shape American policymaking. Oil is the quintessential industrial commodity of the modern world, used heavily in everything from transportation to construction to packaging. Even in a world in which we obtained 100 percent of our energy from renewable sources -- a development that is unlikely to be witnessed by anyone now living -- industrial uses for oil alone would likely prevent global demand from dropping by more than half of its current level. For better or worse, human need for oil is a fact of economic life for the foreseeable future.

As such, access to that oil is of critical importance to any country that considers economic stability and growth a necessity. As the global superpower, the United States has a vested interest in maintaining deep influence in the Middle East, which holds roughly two-thirds of known deposits. Just as the United States has an interest in preventing a single power from rising to dominance in Eurasia, it has an interest in preventing a single power from controlling the Persian Gulf region.

But while important, oil is hardly the end all and be all of U.S. foreign policy. For example, much hay has been made of the connections of President George W. Bush and Vice President #^&#^&#^&#^& Cheney to the oil industry, and many have argued that the invasion of Iraq was all about oil. Such assertions ultimately fall flat for two reasons.

First, whatever they might have wanted as oilmen, Bush and Cheney as heads of state have grand geopolitical strategy on their minds. Before coming to power in 2000, Cheney served as CEO of the oil services firm Halliburton, where he regularly and actively lobbied for an end to sanctions on Iran so that U.S. firms could benefit from that country's oil boom. His advocacy for such a stance ended shortly after he took office -- now Cheney is among the most strident supporters of an Iranian containment strategy.


Second, Iraq is a very odd country for the United States to invade for oil. (And despite being unable or unwilling to articulate them, the Bush administration had other reasons for invading.) Even in the most peaceful of times, Iraq has been a place where physical security is challenging to say the least -- attempting to govern it is not a task that one takes on lightly. It also happens to be on the wrong side of the planet to service U.S. energy needs. If the United States were to invade a country for oil, the logical choice would be Venezuela, not Iraq. Not only is Venezuela a short sail from the U.S. Gulf Coast, many U.S. refineries have been specifically geared to process its crude -- and some of these are owned by none other than the Venezuelan government.

As long as oil can come out of the ground and get to market, and as long as no one particular power controls a disproportionate amount of the stuff (say, the one-quarter that the Persian Gulf produces), the United States does not much care who owns it.

What Washington is beginning to care about, however, is its cost. But not in the way you might think. Yes $90 a barrel crude is expensive, but the U.S. citizenry is the richest population in human history in terms of disposable income. The high cost has annoyed many, but it really has not impeded much of anything.

What it has done, however, is empower producers. It has fed a massive amount of income into two regions which until recently have been rather poor: Russia and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. These countries have witnessed a remarkable shift in fortunes over the past six years as crude has sailed from less than $20 a barrel to more than $80. The Arab states have used their newfound wealth to purchase social quietude; the Russians, to regenerate their defense industry. And both boast more than enough left over to splash a few hundred billion dollars around in an effort to achieve other goals via foreign acquisitions.

The petrodollars have changed regional power dynamics to say the least, but their deeper impact is financial. For most of the past 15 years, Japan and China have been the world's source of surplus capital, and their rises and falls have set the tempo of international economic life. Now there are two new sources of cash in the financial system with different sets of plans and goals. And one of these sources -- Russia -- most certainly has the intention of changing a few things.

fishpoopoo is offline  
Old 11-10-2007, 09:36 PM   #2
spence
Registered User
iTrader: (0)
 
spence's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: RI
Posts: 21,181
A lot of BS aside from the line about high oil empowering the producers.

The Bush Iraq policy is certianly about oil and influence over oil. To say it's about militant Islam is pretty absurd considering, well, all the facts.

And I'm not sure why the author would argue that the Middle East isn't geographically close when we still get 25% of our oil from there...

-spence
spence is offline  
 

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:43 AM.


Powered by vBulletin. Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Please use all necessary and proper safety precautions. STAY SAFE Striper Talk Forums
Copyright 1998-20012 Striped-Bass.com