It’s pretty inevitable that the US will stop involving themselves in the Middle East. Not only has success been limited, but the strategic value of the region has changed drastically over the last...
It’s pretty inevitable that the US will stop involving themselves in the Middle East. Not only has success been limited, but the strategic value of the region has changed drastically over the last few decades. As is often joked to this day, the US use to import almost 60% of its oil from the Middle East.
What the continuation of these jokes has missed is that that’s very much not true anymore. The US is now the largest oil producer in the world, and a net exporter. That doesn’t mean the US is immune to market fluctuations from actions by OPEC, but it means that it’s no longer disproportionately affected. When OPEC cuts output that also hurts them. The US can more than afford to play chicken now.
It turns, the only desert the US needed to invade was in Texas, and the only invading force it needed was water.
It’s pretty inevitable that the US will stop involving themselves in the Middle East. Not only has success been limited, but the strategic value of the region has changed drastically over the last few decades. As is often joked to this day, the US use to import almost 60% of its oil from the Middle East.
What the continuation of these jokes has missed is that that’s very much not true anymore. The US is now the largest oil producer in the world, and a net exporter. That doesn’t mean the US is immune to market fluctuations from actions by OPEC, but it means that it’s no longer disproportionately affected. When OPEC cuts output that also hurts them. The US can more than afford to play chicken now.
It turns, the only desert the US needed to invade was in Texas, and the only invading force it needed was water.