>If US frees itself of dependence on mid east oil, how does that help stop actions that "inflame the Arab world"?
One example- would we have stationed troops in Saudi Arabia if it were not for the oil?
Presence of troops often irritates the locals e.g. Okinawa. It would be much better if we were not there, in terms of relations with Arab world.
There are clearly many factors that affect American decision making in the Mideast, but oil is a major factor. Remove the dependence on oil, and you remove an enormous lever that can be used against us.
Most humans have a difficult time thinking in time frames over hours to days. Those that can have an enormous advantage over those that cannot. The natives of Indochina thought in terms of decades, and defeated the French and Americans, who did not have that perspective.
This enemy, I believe, thinks in terms of decades. Are we doing that?
One final thought- humans have steadily increased their ability to kill their fellow man over the last 35,000 years or so. Our ancestors likely killed off the Neanderthals with clubs and stone weapons. Over time, we moved on to metal weapons, bow and arrow, gunpowder, cavalry, cannons, machine guns, tanks, air power, and then chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. 35,000 years ago, a small band of humans could kill a few hundred enemies, with great effort and cost. In this last century, humans killed tens of millions, but it took tens of millions of people to do it. We are on the cusp of a new killing efficiency, where a small band of individuals will be able to slaughter millions. This is why the ranting about “razing Kabul” is insane. In the next 20-30 years, there is a reasonable probability that we will gain the ability to identify human targets based on their DNA composition, RNA, protein or glycoprotein expression, and deliver lethal biologic payloads to those targets. Want to kill all blond-haired and blue-eyed people? All Ashkenazi Jews? All Palestinians? All Croats? We will be able to do that. Add nukes to that mix, and that is a pretty nasty prospect. To defeat terrorism in the long term, we need to address the issues that create the terrorist, in addition to not tolerating violence. We will also likely need a 21st century version of the MAD doctrine. |
