Recently in class we discussed the Iran Crisis and how it affected US oil imports, skyrocketing gas prices. Today, we still rely on the Middle East for oil. 14 percent of our imported oil comes from Saudi Arabia. Also, the US still has military campaigns going on in the Middle East, despite the fact that the longer the US remains in the Middle East, the worse tensions are between terrorist organizations and the United States. There are more and more radical anti-US groups such as ISIS, and their power is only on the rise.
So, why are we still in the Middle East?
Since the 1970s, our oil imports have risen from 12 to 25 percent of our total oil. Also, since the 1970s, the US has had military campaigns in the Middle East, even during times where no major conflicts were happening.
This is just brushing the surface. The entire US-Middle Eastern relationship is murky.
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ReplyDeleteI think that our need on them for oil causes us to rely on them far too much, and in some ways depend on them -- despite the tensions between the countries.
DeleteMaybe the US is involved in the Middle East because they want to get rid of that dependence, and instead have independent control?
DeleteAlthough it would make sense for the American government to try and preserve its sources of oil in the Middle East, I think it might be going too far to say that the US is involved in this region in order to get independent control over the drilling and transportation of oils from countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia; if there are millions people throughout the Middle East that hate America with a passion (whether its for its promotion of Israel, rigging elections in Muslim countries, etc) in very unstable nations that could undergo major political changes often, it would be essentially impossible for the US to try and get independent control over their oil supplies. Because of this, I think the American government is more focused on trying to prevent potentially destabilizing political chaos from brewing in these countries in the first place rather than directly protecting their sources. This can be seen in places like Iran where the American government funded the Iranian military (under the Shah that they helped prop up) so that they could protect oil drilling sites on their own without direct American involvement.
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