Hat tip to Gates of Vienna
Do you remember Kuwait?
That was the country that Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded some years ago. They occupied Kuwait. They annexed it. They killed and tortured its citizens.
The United States, under George H.W. Bush, led an international coalition to liberate Kuwait and drive the Iraqis out. So what is happening in Kuwait today?
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/08/tolerance-kuwait-style.html
So why did we bother? "Oh yes", says some wise guy. "We didn't do it for the freedom of the Kuwaiti people. We did it for the oil."
Perhaps.
If so, my next question is, "Why should we have to send our troops to fight and die not to liberate anyone, but to protect our oil interests?'
Good question, I concede.
So what happens when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is threatened? Do we have to go to war to protect the royal family from an Islamic overthrow or to protect our oil interests?
Saudi Arabia-our allies, right? This is the country where Wahhabi Islam, the strictest form of Islam reigns. This is the country that uses its vast oil wealth to fund most mosques in the US-where anti-Western Wahhabi Islam is preached. This is the country that uses its vast oil wealth to fund the establishment of Middle East studies departments in universities around the US-staffed by professors that are apologists for terror and harsh critics of Israel. This is the country that funnels money to terrorist organizations in the hope that they (the Saudis) will be left alone.
Yet, we continue to deal with this country. Does it make sense? What are the alternatives?
I'm glad you asked.
Develop our own sources of oil until that grand day when oil no longer drives the world's economy.
Off shore drilling
ANWR (Alaska)
Keystone Pipeline
Where do I not make sense?
If you recall, we got into the Kuwait thing when it appeared Hussein al-Takriti might invade Saudi Arabia. That was Desert Shield.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we shouldn't be defending these regimes, not even from national socialists like Hussein.
But that means developing electric vehicles, modern mass transit, and CNG, to sharply reduce our need for their oil.