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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (199508)	8/26/2006 2:14:55 PM
From: Ichy Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Furthermore, there's a problem with geo-political influence that reliance upon Mid-East oil creates. If we're independent of Mid-East oil, then our influence there is less. Because foreign oil purchases are, in essence, a form of foreign assistance. They have a resource and instead of just giving them money, we purchase their product, oil. Thus, if we stop purchasing their oil, we lose some of our leverage in the region. Rather than the current "threat" of moving to alternative fuels, actually doing so then relegates the Mid-East (and the ongoing religious fanaticism) to the backwaters of US foreign policy. But that won't make the religious fanaticism just "disappear".. It will still exist and we'll be less inclined to be involved in creating the changes and reforms that are necessary for the militant ideology to be neutralized and eliminated as a global threat. We'll just say "it's not worth it" and we don't need to be involved. But if the US, and by extension the world could reduce the use of Oil to the point where oil returned to $30 a barrel, we would still be able to buy it, but at a price that causes them to have much less money to buy weapons with,.