Oh please. Even at $3.00 a gallon gas would be one of the cheapest liquids on earth/unit of production. $2.00+- a gallon is not some ungodly amount to pay for it. It is just a bit more than what we are accustomed to paying.
Also, if America were to stop buying ME oil the ME would undoubtedly starve because any technology and efficiency that would allow some 300 million people to conduct business as usual sans ME oil, would, without any doubt at all, also be employed by Japan, Europe and virtually every other energy market in the world. Oil would become essentially obsolete.
Of course that is fine by me. In fact I have a personal interest in some of the more promising energy alternatives to try and help fill the demand for cheaper/cleaner energy. But we ought not be deceived. When we accomplish our goals here, the ME will suffer like never before. It has no suitable manufacturing infrastructure to take advantage of these technologies and without oil exports it won't have revenue sufficient to build one. If you really wanna criticize leaders, criticize those of the ME. These folks are barbarians, selfish, hardly forward-looking at all. The ME needs a lot more than mere factories. It needs an overall educational and cultural revolution to entice the kind of investment diversity it needs. We are talking about 100 years of work that just ain't gonna begin and take root any time soon.
There will be a place for oil for the immediate decades to come; and I suspect this will allow Iraq to recover and become a serious ME, perhaps world, player. But eventually, the entire thing is going to come crashing down. |
