Dan,
Right now, a more stable Soviet Union is important to the world.
And Russia (Soviet Union is gone) is being stabilized by increased oil exports or saying it differently, increased imports of oil from Russia by the West. Otherwise, Russian economy would still be a serious mess.
Let's just divvy up the middle east's oil, something like:
US 25%
Soviet Union / Eastern Europe 25%
Western Europe / England 25%
Asia 25%
You know there is exactly 0% probability of something like this happening (ignoring for the moment if something like this would be a good thing) so there is no point talking about it.
If and when Saddam is toppled, there is no plan of any kind of takeover of the oil fields, just a change in leadership, replacing on corrupt group, that has been a pariah in the region with another corrupt group, which hopefully will not have ambitions beyond the borders of Iraq, and will not be hostile to the US.
As far as oil is concerned, one benefit of "regime change" is that the oil exports will no longer be capped, which may result falling prices and less oil profits to go around, financing Al Qaeda types. And lower oil prices may boost the sluggish US economy.
Joe |
