What you give with one hand, you take away with the other. Well, I have no idea what your argument is. It is oil; it is not oil. It is sex; it is not sex.
It's all such a paradox, John.
The reason we are in the region is oil. However, once in the region, we now have a large number of engagements with the region. For example, some people in the region like blowing us up. We have established relationships and become allied with a number of countries.
It started out with oil. Now that we are engaged, the relationship is rich, deep, complex, contradictory, evolving, dangerous, successful ...
It is all about oil is too simplistic to be useful. Saying the US is aiming at Iraq with the intent to manage oil prices is equally simplistic. It may well have been the foreign policy calculus a few decades back but it sure is not the case today. They are attacking American's at home now. If you cannot see how that changes the calculation, then there is no point continuing the conversation.
Paul |
