[lbo-talk] Re: Re: Bush invaded Iraq because...

Joe Smith joseph.a.smith1 at verizon.net
Mon Apr 12 09:32:08 PDT 2004



> B. wrote:
>
> >And in any event, isnt control of the worlds energy
> >resources worth something?
>
> It might, if someone could explain to me what "control" means. There
> are scads of energy-producing regions in the world - Texas, Iran,
> Russia, Norway, Mexico.... They sell oil and its substitutes into
> world markets, where the country of origin label becomes illegible. I
> wish someone would explain how that complex structure could be
> controlled.
>
> Doug

I'm not sure what definition of "control" was originally intended but its safe to say that having compliant regimes sitting on top of oil producing regions remains a priority. It's hard to figure out why else the US would be occupying Iraq right now or building up a presence in Central Asia or becoming more interested in oil-producing countries in Africa. I could be wrong, perhaps Washington would be comfortable if such regions were dominated by noncompliant or unstable governments of whatever character (religious, socialist, etc.). But I doubt that Washington would receive much solace from the knowledge that at the end of the day even hostile & unstable regimes would have to sell their oil on the world market to retain some semblance of economic viability In this sense country of origin labels are still quite important to policy makers in Washington. :)

joe



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