Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Over the weekend, Peter wondered why it should be necessary for the Obama administration to step up U.S. presence in the Persian Gulf region even as we withdraw all remaining troops from Iraq.
A way to make the presence of troops in the Gulf less pressing would be to increase our domestic oil production from 40% to 65% of our needs, which, with vast new finds in the Dakotas, offshore, the west, and in Alaska, is actually practicable, along with converting much of our fleet to natural gas, whose domestic reserves seemed to have doubled if not tripled in the last five years. In the next 10 years, the Western Hemisphere, from Brazil to Alberta, will produce as much oil and gas as the Gulf. That would relegate that region to something like the Horn of Africa, a key transit point for global commerce, but not a place where the U.S. would invest blood and treasure to keep it quiet 24/7.
In general the stationing of troops after successful wars—Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Balkans, Iraq—has led to consensual governments which were in our longterm interests. And if there is not ongoing fighting and if the host is willing to pick up some of the costs, then the expenses of such deployments are not that much greater than having the troops based at home—with the caveat, of course, that it is much more likely to intervene and use troops abroad somewhere than when they are home.
As for defending corrupt, rich, and often anti-American Gulf monarchies, as we did in 1991 with Kuwait: I think the thinking is one of bad and worse choices. Yes, they are all that above, but they are not quite Irans or Saddam's Iraq, which translated vast oil revenues into attacking neighbors or—overtly— funding international terrorism. A now duplicitous Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or Qatar openly playing the role of Iran or Iraq in the 1980s, or even a Gaddafi around 1980, would ultimately be a worse nightmare. So we put troops in the area, blush over the hypocrisies and costs involved, and shrug that the alternative might be worse. For some reason, this administration cannot grasp that a national effort to produce more gas, oil, and coal in this hemisphere—possible now in a way it was not in 2000— means less money for and less tension with the Arab Islamic Middle East, and also less environmental damage, given that we or the Canadians can extract fossil fuels far more greenly than can a Russia or Nigeria. Otherwise, it is more hundreds of billions of borrowed American money to Islamists, sheiks, and dictators, and more Solyndras and government-made Chevy Volts at home.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
It's against his "religion." Obama's government is a green theocracy. What you have just delineated is heresy...and anyone speaking such heresy would be burned at the stake...with electrical current fueled by solar panels.
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Profound post. Natural gas as an alternative automotive fuel makes practical sense while electricity stored in rechargeable batteries does not. Similarly, gas and coal fuel cheap and reliable electric generators, while energy from windmills and photovoltaic cells is both expensive and intermittent.
The left's embrace of expensive and impractical energy must be highlighted and defeated in the coming presidential contest.
Sep '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
I'm all for natural gas but I've read that the chief opposition to it consists of bogus claims about fracturing which happens at miles of depth is injurious to the water table which is miles above it. It appears that these bogus environmental claims are funded by the coal industry.
Dec '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
While energy independence may be a pipe dream, energy security is certainly not. Shifting our sources to less hostile regions is one of the most common sense ideas around and also the most widely ignored. The benefit to our economy and our security cannot be understated. In the West Texas town where I grew up oil companies have started doing drive by interviews and hiring people on the spot. It's exactly the sort of thing this country needs.
Oct '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
This doesn't surprise me. This administration also could not grasp the idea that a free Iran would greatly reduce tensions in region which would require much less intervention from the United States. It would be a markedly more peaceful neighborhood if Iran was governed by the consent of the Iranian people rather than by hateful Islamist theocrats.
Feb '11
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
This is a matter of time scale. Electric rechargeable batteries for something as energy hungry as an automobile is not practicable any time soon at a reasonable cost. That does not mean it will not be in 30 years time. Obama's real problem is he is clueless about what to do to go from here to there. He seems only too willing to let us sit in the dark in the mean time.
Oil is fungible.It doesn't matter where it comes from. If it isn't American dollars coming from the US, then it will be American dollars coming from China, India, or some other country that lines the pockets of Middle Eastern tyrants of whatever flavor. The new energy in the western hemisphere will largely replace declining oil supplies from the Middle East, Mexico, and Africa and supply new demands from expanding economies in India and China. By all means, the energy should be developed, but it isn't going to be some kind of panacea and trying to represent it as such should be resisted. It may lead to a more solvent US, but the world is likely to be as unstable as ever.
Dec '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Hang On:
It may lead to a more solvent US, but the world is likely to be as unstable as ever. · Nov 3 at 11:32am
True, but that instability will be less of our concern. Stability in the Middle East will not hang over us like the Sword of Damocles and direct our every foreign policy decision.
Dec '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Just as no one demands having healthcare rationed except Leviathan employed collectivists and constituencies maintained in its servitude, no one demands rationing energy, particularly gasoline, except Leviathan employed collectivists who have the intention to further collectivize and subdue the middle class into submission thereto.
Changing “power to the people” into “take power from the people,” both energy and property, by means of regulations and taxation, serves our historic first Islamic apostate president’s goal of fundamentally transforming our way of life.
Dec '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Imperium over the flow of energy under our command, taken away from the sands of Arabia and the sirens of the Strait of Hormuz will indeed serve the cause of world peace. No hegemony is as benevolent as ours, none as iniquitous as that of a Persian Ayatollah or Saudi King.
Edited on November 3, 2011 at 10:07pmFeb '11
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
The King Prawn
Hang On:
It may lead to a more solvent US, but the world is likely to be as unstable as ever. · Nov 3 at 11:32am
True, but that instability will be less of our concern. Stability in the Middle East will not hang over us like the Sword of Damocles and direct our every foreign policy decision. · Nov 3 at 11:37am
There are lots of people here who are worried about the Chinese developing nuclear aircraft carriers. Those aircraft carriers will be headed for the Gulf and Indian Ocean when there are troubles with getting raw materials from unstable places back to China. Is this likely to be a problem for the US? And what of India? And Pakistan? And Iran? It isn't A sword of Damocles we will be looking at but multiple swords. Ready for that?
Dec '10
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Now we are getting somewhere Victor. We need to lock our targeting devices back onto Energy Reality. This would be the massive first step of a global market game change for America and the West. Man Made Global Warming was the big lie that damaged us. We are finally ready to shake this planetary scale monkey off our backs. If we can see clearly enough and break the strangle hold of anti-productivity eco-madness nothing can stop us. I think we need a clean sweep for this. Presidency, Senate, large House majority and 2-3 young very conservative Supreme Court appointments. BUST US LOOSE!!!
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
Thanks Victor. Your posts are always excellent. Keep them coming. John and Ken on KFI were praising you yesterday, by the way.
Apr '11
Re: Onward Into the Persian Gulf
There are a couple of good curbs on over-enthusiasm there, but it seems to me that the two sentences are at loggerheads.