Re: No, the real fear --actually the current fear about Iran and Ahmadinejad-- is the possibility for anti-Zionist oil producers to sell their oil to others (China, India,...) and use the money as they see fit!
So you agree with me -- it is about control.
Indeed. Unlike me, however, you overlook the fact that "control of oil" would NOT be a problem for the US if Arabs/Palestinians had not been stripped of their control over Jerusalem/the Holy Land. Suppose for a moment that Zionists had been unsuccessful to enforce their "Jewish homeland" upon Palestine in the 1940s... What's today Israel would merely be Jordan's seafront on the Mediterranean. Now, tell me, why would there be any bad blood between the US and the Arab world? Why would there be any misgivings or hatred between Arab/Muslim oil producers and the US? Without Israel, why would the former refuse to sell their oil (their only asset) to the US? The US, for most of the post-WWII period, has been the world's largest oil market/consumer --well before Europe and Japan. Why would Arab/Muslim oil producers cut themselves off from such a gold mine?!?
Control of Arab oil became a problem --a military one-- insofar as the US wanted it both ways: its Faustian deal with the Arabs called for Zionist control over the Holy Land AND control over Arab oil. But then again, control of Arab oil was never a matter of vital necessity for the US --it was, and still is, a matter of vital necessity for Israel to the extent that oil revenues could be diverted by Arab/Muslim producers to waging war on Israel. That's why, ever since the FDR-King Saud bargain aboard the USS Quincy in 1945, the US had to prop up quisling regimes in the Gulf and protect them against "Bin Laden" rebels.
Re: I simply cannot believe that religious fantasy is the prime mover of US foreign policy.
As far as the Middle East is concerned, the Judeo-Protestant mythology trumps any other issue:
Message 20361735
After all, what's the state of Israel if not a "religious fantasy" made true?
Gus |
