"but it's a given we're going to be around for some time to come."
I tend to disagree with that.
"This isn't Vietnam;"
Correct. It's not Poland either. (PS --- what happened shortly after the end of the US's involvement, taking up of France's colonial stake, in Vietnam? Vietnam and *China* went to war... and China and the Soviet Union went to war. So much for John Foster Dulles' ability to predict the future! :-)
"... we're going to be getting oil from the Middle East for decades."
Actually, the US imports little oil from the Middle East. (Most Middle Eastern oil is exported to Europe or Japan or China.)
The US' largest foreign suppliers of oil are: Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Nigeria.
(Not that that matters all that much though - oil is sold into a GLOBAL MARKET, affecting everyone's prices. Were the US to leave Iraq, Middle Eastern oil would *still* be sold into world markets, regardless. Because that is how these countries earn their national income. In fact, if a broader Sunni/Shia, Persian/Arab regional war were to break out in the territory of today's 'Iraq' --- similarly to the eight year long Iran/Iraq Gulf War of the 'eighties and early 'nineties --- global oil prices would probably FALL, as both sides would need to pump all the oil they could, and as fast as they could, to pay for their war efforts and try to keep their citizens from revolting and over-throwing their corrupt Autocratic governments at the same time.)
ALL GOOD FOR THE IMPORTING NATIONS OF THE WORLD, the US most definitely included.
It is in no way necessary to pour another half TRILLION DOLLARS of borrowed taxpayer's money out on the sands there. (Unless one is actively out to HARM America. If so, then that is a *fine* way to do so. :-( |
