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Preeminence
in the Middle East
by
Stan Moore
May
17, 2003
It
really does boil down to petroleum.
George W. Bush hardly knows anything about Islam. He could not identify Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan, or even South Carolina if asked to point those locations on world
or national maps. But George W. Bush
does understand oil and he understands power.
And George W. Bush knows that the world is running out of oil and that
America needs to control the world's remaining petroleum production and
distribution in order to prolong America's hegemony and dominance over world
affairs for as long as possible in the last century of the world's petroleum
era.
George
W Bush believes in the Pax Americana and the desirability of world dominance by
America, using military force as required.
George W. Bush believes that America's economy and ability to access
natural resources around the world depend upon America's military power and
ability to project that power in a timely manner in any place of America's
choosing around the world.
The
day will come when petroleum is depleted, or becomes so expensive that its profligate
use will no longer be possible. The day
is coming when the scarcity of petroleum will affect electrical production,
agriculture, and even the world's airline industries. These societal maintains of the western "developed"
nations will no longer be recognizable in today's form, perhaps in as little as
twenty-five years, and certainly in no more than seventy-five years. We have a relatively short window of
continued domination by America of the world.
Eventually, petroleum scarcity will make it physically and financially
impossible for America to project its power around the world, at least in terms
of conventional forces. Perhaps this is
a reason why America now seeks to develop and devise yet more advanced weapons
of mass destruction, including nuclear armaments, while attempting to deny its
potential adversaries the same capabilities.
Perhaps this is why America wishes to develop anti-ballistic missile
defense systems, and base military personnel in bases spread around the
world.
Perhaps
this is why America seeks strategic control over world-wide petroleum reserves
-- in order not only to maintain strength and initiative for as long as
possible, but also to deny power to potential adversaries, including nations
now considered to be friends and allies.
The
day may come, and many can see the development now, when nations such as
France, Germany, Russia, China, and Japan will recognize that America only will
trust and cooperate with them in the context of American economic
interests. If America determines that
such nations pose a greater threat of competition than their benefits in trade,
the U.S. may very well work to destabilize, weaken, and perhaps even destroy
these nations. It was only less than 20
years ago that America felt it in its interests to arm Iraq.
As
international dynamics changed, America was willing to embargo Iraq from receiving
even necessary medical supplies, so that at minimum hundreds of thousands, and
perhaps a million Iraqi children and adults died prematurely from preventable
causes. This mass taking of human life
in Iraq probably exceeds the numbers of victims of the Saddam Hussein regime,
which is vilified by the Western Press for its cruelty and barbarism. If America can turn on Iraq, it can turn on
France. If American can turn on France,
it can turn on Mexico.
The
future of scarcity means conflict will become a way of life. The neo-conservatives already clearly see
this, and are calling for a deliberate period of wars of conquest,
colonization, imperialism, and suppression of real and potential enemies. It is not enough for America to be
strong. It is necessary under
neo-conservative doctrine for America to be almighty, unchallenged, and
unchallengeable. It is necessary for
America not only to eliminate its enemies, but to eliminate threats to its
security, even by further preemptive warfare.
The
time for America to weaken its competitors and potential threats is now, while
petroleum is still relatively abundant and relatively cheap. Now is the time for powerful corporate
American interests to build their wealth and to dominate world markets in every
conceivable way.
The
eventual depletion of petroleum will ultimately weaken America militarily and
economically. Competition will
ultimately not only be fierce, but deadly.
Competition for water and for other strategic minerals may be far
greater than now imagined in the decades to come.
To
top it all off, global climate change may cause catastrophic loss of human life
by impeding world food production.
Catastrophic weather events may destroy considerable property. Rising shorelines and devastating storms may
take their toll, adding to societal instability.
The
wealthiest Americans will behave in the manner they have always behaved. Control of power and control of the American
military by the corporate elite may result in violent civil war in America
during this century.
America
is at the apex of its power right now, in the first decade of the twenty-first
century. The standard of living of the
American people will inevitably go down.
The cost of living will rise.
The food supply will increasingly become unstable. Conflicts with the rest of the world will
become more acute.
Civil
liberties for the American people will continually grow more restricted, and
repression will become more commonplace.
The
current preeminence of America in the Middle East will only be temporary. It cannot be sustained, and particularly not
when nations of the world begin to conspire in very serious ways to undermine
American power and influence.
Other
nations of the world will devise strategies to weaken America, such as refusal
to trade, refusal to allow American military bases on their territories,
refusal to finance American governmental debt, refusal to allow American
corporations to operate in their territories.
America can fight battles in one place at a time, but American can not
prevail militarily or economically against a world united against itself.
Rough
times are ahead for America. The cycles
of history turn. Empires come and
empires go. Power and influence is
gained, and then lost. Love turns to
hatred. Tyrants fall along with their
heirs and their regimes.
Children
born in the first decade of this century will live to see a much different
world by the time of their old age. The
transition will not be easy, safe, or happy.
American preeminence in the Middle East and in the world will be
remembered in Baghdad along with Saddam and Qusay Hussein.
George
W. Bush will be remembered as a tragic figure who catalyzed the inevitable
changes in the world order, and brought his nation to a premature decline.
Stan Moore lives in San
Geronimo, CA., and can be contacted at: hawkman11@hotmail.com