ok first I want to be careful in how I phrase this arguement, because I don't want it to be taken the wrong way. Make no mistake, the decision to invade was not based on a desire simply to steal the Iraqi's oil wealth from them. However having said that, you cannot ignore the national security interests that are inherently associated with our dependence on foreign oil.
We want the Iraqis to prosper, but we don't want them to be able to use their relative factor endowments as a tool to blackmail us and use the
funds gained from oil sales to finance terrorism as was generally done under Saddam as well as throughout the middle east.
Like it or not, the engine of democracy needs oil to grow: without it our economy would grind to a screeching halt. Oil is important but perhaps we should try to understand how important it is.
Just think how much of our economy is intrinsically linked to oil. Without it, cars, trucks planes trains can't run, almost every good that has to be shipped from one place to another has its price influenced by energy costs of oil.Americans consume energy in five major sectors Electricity generation, the residential sector, commercial sector, industrial or manufactuing sector and transportation. Almost all of the transportation industry is built around oil from every refinery
to cobustion engine and has no real close substitues that can replace it in the near future. All the engines and refineries and pipelines and associated infrastructure would have to be replaced with infrastructure designed for whatever alternative fuel we would try to use, which at ths point don't appear to exist in nearly sufficent quantities to replace oil. The industrial sector uses primary energies to manufacture refined petroeum products (gasoline, butane propane industrial fuel oil, dieel and jet fuel)chemical products, steel, aluminum,automobiles,trucks airplanes, farm equipment and machinery.
39% of primary energies, oil,natural gas,coal,nuclear,and renewables (hydropower wind etc) goes toward producing electricity in the US. 40.4% of total US demand for Primary energies is for oil. Without electricity refidgerators, computers, gadgets, microwaves,washers dryers won't work. The list goes on.
Output per worker and GDP are closely linked to energy consumption. Close to 88% of world energy demand is for fossil fuels and global demand is only expected to increase in the future.
While Iraq is only the sixth largest exporter of oil to the US, Iraq's oil fields are relatively unexplored, flow freely and require little if any secondary lift (so it's cheap to produce)
and has probable reserves that are second or third largest in the world behind Saudi Arabia and perhaps Iran depending on which estimates are used , but their infrastucture has been badly damaged by neglect under Saddam and sabotage by terrorists
Stability in Iraq and hopefully thus hopefully the region where 61% of the world's entire oil reserves and similarly large natural gas reserves are located, as well as the safe and successful addition of infrastructure improvements could enhance greatly our ability to grow and secure the energy necessary to help
the growth of our allies around the world in the future. Failure to secure the region will probably mean higher energy prices, continued financing of terrorist operations through sales of oil, increasing power of leaders like Ahmadinejad and Chavez as well as China and Russia which are showing increasing prominance in the region, and less ability to help allies grow their economies into fully industralized nations.
If we aren't able to meet the world demand in the future I'm afraid we're going to have alot more problems than what we're experiencing in Iraq now.
We want the Iraqis to prosper, but we don't want them to be able to use their relative factor endowments as a tool to blackmail us and use the
funds gained from oil sales to finance terrorism as was generally done under Saddam as well as throughout the middle east.
Like it or not, the engine of democracy needs oil to grow: without it our economy would grind to a screeching halt. Oil is important but perhaps we should try to understand how important it is.
Just think how much of our economy is intrinsically linked to oil. Without it, cars, trucks planes trains can't run, almost every good that has to be shipped from one place to another has its price influenced by energy costs of oil.Americans consume energy in five major sectors Electricity generation, the residential sector, commercial sector, industrial or manufactuing sector and transportation. Almost all of the transportation industry is built around oil from every refinery
to cobustion engine and has no real close substitues that can replace it in the near future. All the engines and refineries and pipelines and associated infrastructure would have to be replaced with infrastructure designed for whatever alternative fuel we would try to use, which at ths point don't appear to exist in nearly sufficent quantities to replace oil. The industrial sector uses primary energies to manufacture refined petroeum products (gasoline, butane propane industrial fuel oil, dieel and jet fuel)chemical products, steel, aluminum,automobiles,trucks airplanes, farm equipment and machinery.
39% of primary energies, oil,natural gas,coal,nuclear,and renewables (hydropower wind etc) goes toward producing electricity in the US. 40.4% of total US demand for Primary energies is for oil. Without electricity refidgerators, computers, gadgets, microwaves,washers dryers won't work. The list goes on.
Output per worker and GDP are closely linked to energy consumption. Close to 88% of world energy demand is for fossil fuels and global demand is only expected to increase in the future.
While Iraq is only the sixth largest exporter of oil to the US, Iraq's oil fields are relatively unexplored, flow freely and require little if any secondary lift (so it's cheap to produce)
and has probable reserves that are second or third largest in the world behind Saudi Arabia and perhaps Iran depending on which estimates are used , but their infrastucture has been badly damaged by neglect under Saddam and sabotage by terrorists
Stability in Iraq and hopefully thus hopefully the region where 61% of the world's entire oil reserves and similarly large natural gas reserves are located, as well as the safe and successful addition of infrastructure improvements could enhance greatly our ability to grow and secure the energy necessary to help
the growth of our allies around the world in the future. Failure to secure the region will probably mean higher energy prices, continued financing of terrorist operations through sales of oil, increasing power of leaders like Ahmadinejad and Chavez as well as China and Russia which are showing increasing prominance in the region, and less ability to help allies grow their economies into fully industralized nations.
If we aren't able to meet the world demand in the future I'm afraid we're going to have alot more problems than what we're experiencing in Iraq now.
