On Sat, Sep 15, 2001 at 11:55:04AM -0500, Barbara Lamar wrote:
> But the main reason the US must support Israel at all costs is that Israel
> is its only reliable ally in a region that contains something like 2/3 of
> the world's proven oil reserves.
But Israel has no oil. Does the US alliance with Israel help
maintain access to Middle Eastern countries that do have oil? If
oil is the objective, it'd be simpler to pay off/befriend Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait than to ally with Israel.
Of course the US already does that. Protecting Israel and protecting
access to oil are somewhat separable, and both dispensable --
Israel is able to defend itself quite nicely.
Why would all of the Persian Gulf region countries stop selling
oil unless we really, really pissed them off? They _need_ to sell
us oil. They haven't got anything else. We can avoid pissing them
off by leaving well enough alone.
During the cold war, protecting access to oil arguably merited
active defense, as the Soviet Union would have loved to deny us
access to oil, regardless of the economic consequences for producing
regions. Although, unless we were actually at war, I bet the USSR
would've sold us oil if they controlled the Middle East -- we've got
all the other goods they want -- though they would've milked our
dependence for every political drop they could get.
-- Mike Linksvayer http://gondwanaland.com/ml/
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