Oil Is Root Of All Ills

National Review Online: U.S. Dependence On Middle East Oil Is Bad For Them ... And Us

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Victor Davis Hanson.

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It is usually silly to offer a single solution to complex problems. But it's hard not to when looking at the serial savagery in Iran and the Arab world.

Oil — the huge profits it provides and the insidious influence it gives those selling it — explains most of the world's worries over the Middle East.

No, that does not mean the United States is fighting in Iraq to get control of its petroleum. For all the charges of "No blood for oil," the American occupation has neither been able to reverse a decline in oil production in Iraq nor alleviate skyrocketing oil prices worldwide. And, recently, the first new contracts of the now-transparent Iraqi oil ministry went to non-American companies.

What it does mean, though, is that the vast imported-petroleum needs of the West, India and China, and the resulting huge profits that pour into oil-exporting states, have super-sized the Middle East's problems.

Currently, much of the Islamic world is struggling to come to grips with modernity and globalization. Yet while the West pays little attention to disenchanted Muslims in India, Indochina or Malaysia, we focus our attention on Iranian and Arab radicals. They alone, thanks to oil, have the cash to fund jihadists and hate-filled madrassas.

The Palestinian problem illustrates this point. Since Israel's occupation of land taken after the 1967 war, much of the world has seen this issue as threatening to regional and global peace.

Such old territorial disputes are, of course, common — and go relatively unnoticed — throughout the world. Japan's Kurile Islands are still held by Russia. Tibet has been absorbed by China. Nuclear Pakistan and nuclear India fight over Kashmir. The list goes on.

Yet it's the anger over the tiny West Bank that in the past caused the Arab patrons of the Palestinians to embargo oil to the West and create long gas lines in Europe and America. As a result, a single suicide bomber from Jericho earns more press than anonymous thousands slaughtered in Darfur.

Today, terrorists operate from East Timor to Peru. But global anxiety has been continually focused on Middle Eastern terrorists, from the Palestinian assassins and hijackers of the 1970s to al Qaeda's suicide bombers. These killers alone have had the means to disrupt the Western way of life. Take away Hezbollah's Iranian petrodollars and it could never afford weapons and foot soldiers to slaughter Westerners in the Middle East and beyond.

An oil-rich Saddam Hussein was a threat only because he had purchased more military hardware than is owned by most European powers — and used it to attack oil-exporting neighbors in a bid to control more of the world’s petroleum reserves.

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is confident that powerful nations abroad will overlook his thuggery in hopes of getting a chance to buy his country's oil — or in worry that any tension would send world prices even higher. Ahmadinejad also knows — and fears — that without supporting terrorists or trying to acquire a nuclear bomb that he'd be just another tinhorn loudmouth like Cuba's Fidel Castro or Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

At the same time, vast oil profits do little to help — and probably much to harm — Middle Eastern countries. Unlike in places where economic achievement is the result of savvy business leaders, a hardworking labor force and a literate public, tribal hierarchies in the Middle East simply metamorphosed into billion-dollar nations by virtue of sitting atop crude oil.

One result is a big inferiority complex in the Middle East. There is always the fear that gas and oil reserves will dry up, leaving a Libya, Iran or Saudi Arabia with as much global attention as a Chad or Bulgaria.

Another result is unstable societies. When nations acquire collective wealth gradually through their own industry, a middle class can arise. But in the Middle East, a few tribal and religious sects with oil are fabulously wealthy; most everyone else is abjectly poor. Illegitimate monarchies and jittery dictatorships — always in fear of coups, terrorists and revolutions — depend upon oil-needy foreigners, trading scarce oil and endless petrodollars for export goods and protection.

If the United States could curb its voracious purchases of foreign oil by using conservation, additional petroleum production, nuclear power, alternate fuels, coal gasification and new technologies, the world price might return to below $40 a barrel.

That decline would dry up the oil profits of those in the Middle East who now so desperately use them to ensure that their own problems must also be the world's.

[samthetvcat]

I'd LOVE to be able to believe that Dumbya and Exxon greed are mostly responsible for skyrocketing pump prices, but unfortunately yeah it's impossible for me to overlook the fact that Iraq is pumping out less crude now than they did under Saddam and that China's demand is way up. Plus look at how much corn farmers are now producing - and aren't oil reserves at a lower level. Even if the Israel/Palestine problem is just as big a cause of the unrest on the Middle East, I have agree that if we are able to work on our oil dependency, that gives creeps like Ahmadinejad less power over us.

It frustrates me too when people say we need to cut down on our oil without offering solutions that are viable to most of us. But one I heard of that's doable is to make sure you keep your tires fully inflated. Some researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/050921_tire.html) found with an unscientific poll that 80 out of 81 of us drive around with underinflated tires to a degree that costs people on average $432 of extra gas a year at current prices - $432! It makes a huge difference because the air pressure decreases in the cold and the extra surface area of the tires on the concrete increases the drag and therefore the work the car has to do to propel it forward. Hopefully other people will come up with other solutions that are also cost-effective - glad to see those energy saver lightbulbs have come down in price.

[kstrisha]

Quote:

Oil %u2014 the huge profits it provides and the insidious influence it gives those selling it %u2014 explains most of the world's worries over the Middle East.

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This is the plain and simple truth...

[sjc_1]

There are people on GreenCarCongress, OilDrum and other sites that have some very good ideas for transporation in the future. But when the oil industry makes $100 billion profit every year off the way things are, you can see why they do not want things to change.

[sparks224]

If you continue to buy gasoline, don%u2019t complain about getting screwed (and yes you are being SCREWED) by the oil companies.

Stop buying gasoline NOW!

Find an electric car and buy it.

Here are your choices:
1. Stop buying gasoline.
2. Shut up.

Any questions?

[bourbon83]

bourbon83
are you a vegas lounge lizard?
maybe a nascar groupie?

Don't bother me, I'm in the middle of my Elvis Impersonation. "Thank you, thankyou very much.." Now I'm off to strap on my beer bladder, and to scream "go Dale" at the track. Oh ya he's dead..

Just another play out of the "liberal guide to anarchy". Call them names and stick out your tounge when you can't compete intellectually.So Sad

[delfmast]

This well written article perfectly describes the problem, and leads us directly to a solution that the President can accomplish without the clowns in our newly disloyal congress. A simple order, today, to purchase all military and government fuels from liquified coal vendors at market prices, will jumpstart the commercialization of the only 100 years supply of alternative source transport fuels that is American controlled. The first years success will allow Bush to go over the head of the disloyal opposition, and force congress to approve a tax credit for rail and airline operators and consumers, to follow the military to the increased liquified coal fuels sources. Deprived of our wobbly western petro dollars, as the author states, the terror financiers who control Middle Eastern oil can try to develope recipes for sand and oil salads, or try to sell enough lubricants to feed their millions of enslaved women, and deprived citizens in general, from that much lessened trade. Not much wealth left over to fund global terror, as they all do today.

[netadmin1-2009]

Bourbon83 says -

"So sorry, but the prez did not make all the anti drilling laws, nor did he block all the attempts to drill here in the good ole USA. Yuppies, and yes some politicians from long gone administrations are to blame for our dependency on foriegn imports. Although we have to look no further than the mirror to see who really is at fault for consuming too much. With all our dependancy on imports, all any country has to do is price us out of the ball game."


nicely put bourbon...

[taylpatr]

If you want to find out about oil, try to follow the money.It's no easy task. These people have their backside covered very well.Cheney or W. couldn't care less about the American people.They're getting their share of the pie no matter what.

[sjc_1]

If you were two oil guys that got put into the White House to make the oil guys richer, you did what you were suppose to. You created so much caos that the world oil price more than tripled from less than $20 per barrel to more than $60 per barrel in less than 5 years.

[Razzl]

While I don't agree with a lot of the analysis, I'm glad that NRO is looking at an issue from a point of view that conservatives and liberals can agree upon. Ultimately the end of the Bush administration will bring about an end to the neocon foreign policy of world conquest and conservatives will need to focus on more practical policies that can be enacted in agreement with the larger public's world view. And note that this will be the case even if the next president is a Republican, because the next Republican president (if there ever is one) will without question NOT be a neocon...

[bourbon83]

Here's a little humor related to our dependancy on imported rescources.
A woman from Los Angeles, who was a tree hugger and an anti-hunter,
purchased a piece of timberland,
There was a large tree on one of the highest points in the tract. She
wanted a good view of the natural splendor of her land so she started
to climb the big tree. As she neared the top she encountered an endangered

owl that attacked her. In her haste to escape, the woman slid down the

tree to the ground and got many splinters in her crotch.

In considerable pain, she hurried to the nearest doctor She told him
she was an environmentalist and an anti-hunter and how she came to
get all the splinters.

The doctor listened to her story with great patience and then told
her to go into the examining room and he would see if he could help her.

She sat and waited three hours before the doctor reappeared. The angry

woman demanded, "What took you so long?"

He smiled and then told her, "Well, I had to get permits from the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service and the Bureau of
Land Management before I could remove old-growth timber from a
recreational area. I'm sorry, but they turned me down."

GOD BLESS AMERICA

[bourbon83]

[It is not the Oil, it's the B A S T A R D S who control it. The President, The Politicians and The Moguls. Top the lot of 'em. ]

So sorry, but the prez did not make all the anti drilling laws, nor did he block all the attempts to drill here in the good ole USA. Yuppies, and yes some politicians from long gone administrations are to blame for our dependency on foriegn imports. Although we have to look no further than the mirror to see who really is at fault for consuming too much. With all our dependancy on imports, all any country has to do is price us out of the ball game.

[clestes-2009]

Well said and completely true.

[drinuk]

It is not the Oil, it's the B A S T A R D S who control it. The President, The Politicians and The Moguls. Top the lot of 'em.

[idlepugilist]

I'd like Mr Hanson to research and explain to American's why the price of gas at the pump is never consistent with the actual price of a barrel of oil. Perhaps he'd learn a little skepticism about the administration and oil powers he loves to defend.

[idlepugilist]

Mr Hanson is wrong. Either Bush had us enter Iraq to ultimately gain favor or control over oil exports, or Bush was shooting-from-the-hip regarding Iraq. If Bush was simply shooting from the hip, his decisions were reckless (looney?), with obviously little foresight, and which any oil-man could tell would put control of Iraq's oil into dispute. Of course, we still have the secret energy meeting that America is not entitled to know about, and which could shed a little light on corruption.
Additionally, Hanson makes it seem that Saddam had such huges stockpiles of weapons ("more...than is owned by most European military powers"). Excuse me, but European military powers amount to Great Britain and Germany. Let's not forget the mighty fortresses of Norway and Lichtenstein. God help us if the military hardware of Sweden should ever be unleashed.... get over it, Hanson. Falsehoods and secretive corporate energy and rebuilding deals led the day with Iraq.

[mikekleber]

I find a suply and demand scenario for higher gas prices hard to swallow. If one looks at gas price history, you will find that between 1990 and 1999 gas prices were very stable, going between $1.20 and $1.40 per gallon. In March 2000, gas prices started their steep climb. I find it more than coincidence that gas prices started to climb right after Bush's inauguration. No other president in history has seen such an increase in energy prices. It will be interesting to find out who was at Cheney's secret energy policy meeting right after the 2000 inauguration. It will probably make you sick. Since Bush took office, oil companies have experienced close to 50 billion in profits. Bush is a liar and a crook. He has not only destroyed our country, but also the US image to the world. If Bush is truly the religious man he says he is, he should donate the wealth he has received since 2000 to the needy.

[bluestardad]

WE HAVE ONLY HAD SINCE 1974 TO GET OFF MIDDLE EAST OIL!

THERE ARE A LOT OF GOVERNMENTS THAT WANT AMERICA TO STAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST EVEN THOUGH WE COULD BE ENERGY INDEPENDENT IN TWO YEARS IF WE WANTED!

[michellem99-2009]

It is over oil. I feel the mass transit is the answer. I use it. Due to health issues my friend has never had a car. I am blind so I walk. I feel there is too many cars on the roads. I don't live a comfortful life. I do feel we need to conserve. We do recycle. I would like the troops to be home when they belong. I do thank them for their duty to this nation even tho I feel war is not the answer. We need to be caretakers of Mother Earth. I do my part.

[johnshaft4]

Much of the tension we see in the world today is a direct result of the failed US foreign policy of suporting tyrants/dictators. For example, when the evil Shah of Iran was ousted, the Iranians immediately turned off the Iran/Israeli oil pipeline. Remember, Saddam was also our buddy.