On Dec 13, 2009, at 10:54 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Noam Chomsky points out, "Note that the critical issue is control,
> not access. US policies towards the Middle East were the same when
> the US was a net exporter of oil, and remain the same today when US
> intelligence projects that the US itself will rely on more stable
> Atlantic Basin resources [i.e., those of the Western hemisphere plus
> west Africa]. Policies would be likely to be about the same if the
> US were to switch to renewable energy. The need to control the
> 'stupendous source of strategic power' and to gain 'profits beyond
> the dreams of avarice' would remain. Jockeying over Central Asia and
> pipeline routes [notably in Afghanistan] reflects similar concerns."
I love Noam, but how can you believe that policy would remain unchanged despite a big change in material circumstances? How do quotes from fifty years ago continue to explain a different world?
Note that U.S. oil companies did rather poorly in the recent round of auctions in Iraq. Companies from China, Malaysia, France, and Russia did at least as well or better.
Doug