While Senators could not be troubled to go to a simple briefing on the NSA warrantless surveillance program and some like South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham shrugged off the importance of privacy, the same Senators are demanding the intervention into yet another war in the Middle East. It does not matter that we have major educational and environmental programs being cut for lack of funding. It does not matter that our invasion in Iraq is an ongoing nightmare. We are being told to intervene in a civil war where Sunnis and Shia are carrying out centuries of hatred with atrocities on both sides. Senators want the U.S. to enforce a no-fly zone which would involve direct attacks on Serbian air forces while President Obama has already pledged to directly support rebel forces with arms.
Graham is frustrated by the delay in intervening into a fourth war: “We need to create a no-fly zone. We cannot take air power out of the equation.” His colleague, Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, has proclaimed “A no-fly zone may be the ultimate tactic that needs to be taken.”
Once again, the media is almost uniformly supporting this hawkish support by framing the question as to how far we should militarily intervene as opposed to whether we should intervene at all.
While Graham referred to the area as a “powder keg,” he is desperate for us to join the fighting through a no fly zone as well as military support. In the meantime, Russia has said it will oppose any no fly zone. Russia is of course the only nation with as conflicted a policy as our own. While denouncing Obama’s decision to supply arms to the rebels as destabilizing, Russia is of course sending massive support to the regime.
Once again, I am struck by how the media attention presupposes our intervention in some form rather than consider the possible position of non-intervention. We have a country filled with religious extremism and sectarian violence. Yet, these Senators are virtually panting to get involved in yet another war. Why?
SWM, I am pleased to hear you’re not an anti-fracker. It is quickly changing the economic dynamics between the US and the Middle East. It’s turned North Dakota, I’m TALKING NORTH DAKOTA, into a gold rush state. My wife has a cousin who is a petrochemical engineer. He was just offered a job he couldn’t refuse in ND running a newly opened plant. His family isn’t pleased. He’s the Packer season tix holder who gets me tix so I’ll probably be going to more games this year.
RWL, New technologies that extract oil and natural gas from shale are much cheaper than wars, and they are rapidly changing the world oil markets.
SWM,
Remember the old saying: “why paid for it, when you can get it for free”? It’s the American way!
” WASHINGTON — U.S. oil production has soared to heights not seen in 20 years, largely driven by an explosion in crude harvested from Texas shale rock.
America is producing more than 7 million barrels of oil a day, the highest volume since 1992, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It’s another sign of the transformation of American energy, as the nation is forecast to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer in just a few years.
Texas and North Dakota are the dominant states behind the increase in oil production, with crude from the Bakken formation of North Dakota transforming that state and allowing it to pass Alaska as the nation’s second leading oil producer.
Texas, meanwhile, has doubled its crude production since January 2010 and is by far the U.S. oil king.
Its boom is mostly because of the Eagle Ford shale region in south Texas, said Philip Budzik, an analyst with the Energy Information Administration. The energy revolution there and in North Dakota is a result of horizontal drilling techniques and hydraulic fracturing, in which high-pressure water and chemicals are injected underground to free up pockets of oil in shale rock.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/28/184489/us-oil-is-booming-led-by-texas.html#.UcBWQNjm-F8#storylink=cpy
RWl, I mispoke. I had heard that somewhere but nonetheless it is a very negligible supplier. I really don’t think this war is about oil. An argument can be made that the war in Iraq was about oil. This one would not be in my opinion.
SWM said: “We don’t import Syrian oil and never have.”
Not True. Please read the following article.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/177337-us-blocks-syrian-oil-imports
US bans Syria Oil Imports
“The United States said Thursday it will ban all Syrian oil imports and urged other countries to follow suit.”
“The United States imports very little Syrian oil — about 1,000 barrels a day in 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration. But a multi-country ban on Syrian oil imports is viewed as one of the most effective ways to hit the country’s economy and put a halt to brutality by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”
“President Obama signed an executive order Thursday laying out what he called “unprecedented sanctions to deepen the financial isolation of the Assad regime and further disrupt its ability to finance a campaign of violence against the Syrian people.”
Swarthmore: You are right, Syria is 32nd with 400,400 barrels per day of production. A barrel is selling for $98, so their oil is worth about $40M per day, or $14.6B per year.
That is 3% of Exxon’s annual revenue. More importantly, if you look at that list of 32, Syria is one of the top 5 targets of opportunity (that is not already engaged); Exxon wouldn’t have much luck advocating for war with Canada, Russia, Great Britain or Norway.
RWL, We don’t import Syrian oil and never have. If the war is truly about oil we should be going to war with Mexico and Canada. They are much closer and have far more oil.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-20-oil-producing-countries-in-the-world-2012-3 Syria is not even in the top 20.
SWM,
You are missing a very important stat. Importation. The US is the World’s largest importer of oil. See the following article:
http://www.worldoil.com/China_to_overtake_US_as_largest_oil_importer.html
Syria doesn’t have to be in the top 20. Currently, the US is paying Syrian Government for it. By providing both sides with weapons, and then, watching & waiting for them to kill each other off, the US will swoop in and get the oil for little to nothing (not to mention how much Haliburton and Black Forest is going to profit off of this war).
“According to the International Energy Agency, the top 10 oil producing countries produced over 63% of the world oil production in 2011. By IEA top oil producing countries were (Mt): 1) Saudi Arabia 517 (12.9%), 2) Russia 510 (12.7%), 3) United States 346 (8.6%), 4) Iran 215 (5.4%), 5) China 203 (5.1%), 6) Canada 169 (4.2%), 7) United Arab Emirates 149 (3.7%), 8) Venezuela 148 (3.7%), 9) Mexico 144 (3.6%), 10) Nigeria 139 (3.5%), Rest of the world 1 471 (36.6%), World 4 011 (100%).[3] ” wiki Syria is not a top oil producing country.
RWL, and others: I agree. In general, follow the money; we intervene on behalf of Exxon and BP, we intervene on behalf of the military industrialists that need perpetual war to have perpetual profits. We have become a paid mercenary, not the world’s cop but the world’s hit man, we intervene on behalf of the highest bidder, always under the flag of humanitarianism and the plight of those poor oppressed people over there, so lacking in their right to be enslaved by and in debt to corporate America … Oops, I meant lacking in “Democracy.”
Funny how our leaders are never that worried about the poor oppressed people if we can’t make a buck on their natural resources or geographic strategic positions, or spend a trillion or so fighting them in a war.
As a politician you cannot thump to maintain the largest army in the world without a reason; you need war to justify the taxes and consume the products manufactured by its suppliers, the ultimate source of your big bribes (aka “contributions” and “financial opportunities”). If you play your cards right, you can point that war machine to wherever it makes the most profit, and stimulate even more of those big-money “contributions” and “financial opportunities.”
Follow the money.
I never have forgiven the North Vietnamese for releasing Mad Dog John McCain and inflicting him on the United States for so many decades. Talk about a dish of revenge served cold! Like the French Bourbon aristocracy who bankrupted their country with needless wars and vainglorious conspicuous extravagance: Mad Dog John has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. So when he starts drooling and spitting and spluttering about bombing some more foreigners who have never threatened or attacked the United States, this veteran of the Nixon-Kissinger Fig Leaf Contingent says:
“We have a country filled with religious extremism and sectarian violence.” — Jonathan Turley
Yes, we do. But what has this to do with Syria?
BarkinDog
1, June 17, 2013 at 9:09 pm
Please, hush. Sissy Graham would rather play Liz Taylor as Cleopatra…
… Trading her nation away for temporary a sense of some future security.
Fair enough to surmise…
… Another war, another Right attacked?
Things haven’t changed too much since Tom Lehrer wrote this classic song, “Send the Marines” in the 1960s. Tom is one of the very few top humorists whose political humor is still topical:
Set aside the drought and overpopulation in Syria that triggered all this. The ‘rebels’ are the same sect as the Saudis (sunni I think, I can’t keep ’em straight). Obama wants to support them, but he doesn’t want them to win. He just wants the Saudi royals to approve. Obama apparently thinks the only thing USAnians care about is gas prices. And he’s probably right. Tweaking Putin is a freebie.
Hello,
I really loved your latest post on “Senators Call For U.S. Intervention In
Another War “. I have gone ahead and added “Jonathan Turley” to my Flipboard. Keep writing awesome stuff, and I will keep reading it.
It’s about maintaining the petro-dollar, i.e., ensuring the reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar by making sure all oil is paid for in dollars, around the world. If you look back in time, you’ll find that Assad made moves away from accepting dollars for Syrian oil.