[Peace-discuss] Why Obama's killing children in AfPak

[C. G. Estabrook]

Oil. Not because we use it in the US, but because control of it gives the US a 
strangle-hold on the economies of our economic rivals in Europe and Asia.

Contrary to the bleats of demagogues of both parties, the US doesn't import much 
oil from the Mideast. Most of what we do import comes from Saudi Arabia, but 
China - not the US - is the biggest importer of Saudi oil.  (It's also the 
second-biggest importer of Iranian oil, and the largest player in the 
distribution of Iraqi oil: the Chinese government assumes that ownership of oil 
fields is a better guarantee of supply than buying oil on the open market.)

But it's important to understand that the US wants it that way.  Here's why:

Last summer, China signed $8 billion in oil and gas deals with Tehran. It's also 
increased sales of gasoline to Iran, which has a lot of oil but few working 
refineries or stable gas suppliers. In fact, China is now Iran's biggest 
economic partner, with more than $21 billion in annual trade. China is reluctant 
to follow the U.S. line on Iran sanctions because of its oil interests. The two 
Chinese warships that docked in Abu Dhabi in March suggested that China is 
willing to back up its interests even with military force.

The US, which is desperately trying to reduce Iran to obedience by whatever 
means, has pressured Saudi Arabia to give China oil guarantees to wean it off 
Iranian oil.

"Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," Sun Bigan, China's former 
Middle East envoy, wrote in an essay in a Chinese academic journal last fall. 
"We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy 
interests and security."

Energy resources remain the fundamental reason the US is willing to kill people 
in the Middle East - in order to make its writ run. The policy is nothing new - 
it's essentially been true since WWII. The Obama administration has adopted it 
completely, and murderously. What does it matter if Afghan kids (and a thousand 
American soldiers) die, if US control of oil can be assured?

--CGE

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