If it were always possible for a willing buyer of oil to obtain oil from a willing seller, then how could Iraq have been prevented from selling oil back before the invasion?
Blockade. In a word, blockade. Military force. We've got aircraft carriers and submarines, Iraq doesn't.
You're simply wrong on this, and in more than just the misuse of the word "fungible".
Nope, I remember the 1973 embargo, and that's exactly what happened. OPEC tried to turn off the spigot, but in the Middle East, everything has a price. The people the Saudis sold to, in turn sold to paper third parties, and so on down the line of plausible denial. ("I swear upon a thousand camels!")
The US is the biggest consumer of crude oil in the world, and also the richest country in the world. Money talks, bullshit (ideology) walks. Commerce always all comes down to money.
As for the Chinese, I think they're going to get all the oil they need from Venezuela now that Chavez is the honcho. Including all the oil that Citgo used to sell via 7-11. Heh. |
