The Importance of Being Earnest
I wrote this a couple of months ago but never got around to publishing it.
China has recently reached an agreement with Nigeria to loan $1 billion for repair and upgrading of their dilapidated national rail system. The Chinese have been forging ties with third world countries lately to solidify their access to natural resources. Venezuela signed a deal with the Chinese recently to supply them oil and give them rights to operate refineries in the country. There have been other such deals in Angola and Algeria.
For the record, the largest oil producers and exporters in the world are listed here.
If and when the US and China meet on the battlefield, it will be in places like Iran, Venezuela, and Nigeria. The Chinese understand that in order to sustain their growth they will need to control energy resources. While most Americans are looking at China as a source of cheap labor, the Chinese are quietly building the military and political structure that they will need to kick the USA off the block.
Ironically, while politicians here in the US complain that China is offering aid to countries without stipulating human rights reforms, the US government engages in wars in the name of human rights but with imperialistic goals. Although it is said that we tamper in places like Panama, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea in the name of human goodness, the fact that we ignored East Timor, Rwanda, Haiti, and Liberia and are currently ignoring Sudan, Uganda, and Myanmar (Burma) is proof that there are more than our noble humanitarian causes at work. It would seem that US officials who criticize Chinese involvement in countries with poor human rights records are engaging in hypocrisy.
The names involved in the US picture go back to the Reagan administration. Gentlemen such as Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld realized that control of oil was going to be critical in maintaining US economic power and they started laying the foundation for military buildup that would ensure control. One of the reasons now, in 2006, that our military is still spending billions on equipment to fight large scale ground wars when the published threat is terrorism is because the underlying situation has not changed. We still need to assert our dominance over countries who try to hinder our oil supplies.
It is, in fact, imperative for us to invade places like Iraq to control the flow of oil. Without oil, the US economy is nothing. This makes China as big or bigger a threat than the Soviet Union was. We are engaged in a battle for oil with China now. Without political favor in Iraq we needed a military solution. Iran must be next or China will step in and pull yet another critical supply out from under us. As we continue to consume more and more oil, growth in China and India will ensure the same in those countries. Given the emotional response most Americans have to high gas prices, the showdown over oil is likely to result in emotional responses rather than diplomacy and non-military resolutions.
It would certainly help if we could start using less energy. The hardest part is convincing people to make sacrifices. Expansion is easy and fun. Contraction hurts. People will not give up the luxuries and comforts in their lives once they have come to expect them as we have. Indeed, the American sense of entitlement for wealth and independence could get in the way. More troubling, however, is the addiction to power and money of the ruling class. The people who give the money to the politicians who get elected are not about to give up their elite position at the top of the heap. They will push the politicians to fight the wars that give them access to the energy their companies need to be profitable.
Cars are the scapegoat for our dependence on foreign oil. It is said that if we drive less then we'll have to import less oil. While this is obviously true, oil is used for a lot more things. If it became too expensive due to short supplies, people could always start taking the subway or the bus to work. But oil is the main ingredient in plastic, which is used in the manufacture of just about everything these days. Oil byproducts are used in electricity generation and to power the trucks, trains, and planes that bring products and services to their customers. If oil gets to be too expensive, prices for everything go up and economic growth slows.
Economic growth is the key here. Without growth, stocks do not make money for their investors. While the working class American might want to take a step back and try a different tack, the money behind our politics will stop at nothing to keep things profitable. So we have a situation where the majority of Americans do not approve of the President and the majority do not like the direction the Iraq war is taking, yet the President will not alter his course nor will he even consider compromising. There is too much at stake for the people with the money.
China has recently reached an agreement with Nigeria to loan $1 billion for repair and upgrading of their dilapidated national rail system. The Chinese have been forging ties with third world countries lately to solidify their access to natural resources. Venezuela signed a deal with the Chinese recently to supply them oil and give them rights to operate refineries in the country. There have been other such deals in Angola and Algeria.
For the record, the largest oil producers and exporters in the world are listed here.
If and when the US and China meet on the battlefield, it will be in places like Iran, Venezuela, and Nigeria. The Chinese understand that in order to sustain their growth they will need to control energy resources. While most Americans are looking at China as a source of cheap labor, the Chinese are quietly building the military and political structure that they will need to kick the USA off the block.
Ironically, while politicians here in the US complain that China is offering aid to countries without stipulating human rights reforms, the US government engages in wars in the name of human rights but with imperialistic goals. Although it is said that we tamper in places like Panama, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea in the name of human goodness, the fact that we ignored East Timor, Rwanda, Haiti, and Liberia and are currently ignoring Sudan, Uganda, and Myanmar (Burma) is proof that there are more than our noble humanitarian causes at work. It would seem that US officials who criticize Chinese involvement in countries with poor human rights records are engaging in hypocrisy.
The names involved in the US picture go back to the Reagan administration. Gentlemen such as Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld realized that control of oil was going to be critical in maintaining US economic power and they started laying the foundation for military buildup that would ensure control. One of the reasons now, in 2006, that our military is still spending billions on equipment to fight large scale ground wars when the published threat is terrorism is because the underlying situation has not changed. We still need to assert our dominance over countries who try to hinder our oil supplies.
It is, in fact, imperative for us to invade places like Iraq to control the flow of oil. Without oil, the US economy is nothing. This makes China as big or bigger a threat than the Soviet Union was. We are engaged in a battle for oil with China now. Without political favor in Iraq we needed a military solution. Iran must be next or China will step in and pull yet another critical supply out from under us. As we continue to consume more and more oil, growth in China and India will ensure the same in those countries. Given the emotional response most Americans have to high gas prices, the showdown over oil is likely to result in emotional responses rather than diplomacy and non-military resolutions.
It would certainly help if we could start using less energy. The hardest part is convincing people to make sacrifices. Expansion is easy and fun. Contraction hurts. People will not give up the luxuries and comforts in their lives once they have come to expect them as we have. Indeed, the American sense of entitlement for wealth and independence could get in the way. More troubling, however, is the addiction to power and money of the ruling class. The people who give the money to the politicians who get elected are not about to give up their elite position at the top of the heap. They will push the politicians to fight the wars that give them access to the energy their companies need to be profitable.
Cars are the scapegoat for our dependence on foreign oil. It is said that if we drive less then we'll have to import less oil. While this is obviously true, oil is used for a lot more things. If it became too expensive due to short supplies, people could always start taking the subway or the bus to work. But oil is the main ingredient in plastic, which is used in the manufacture of just about everything these days. Oil byproducts are used in electricity generation and to power the trucks, trains, and planes that bring products and services to their customers. If oil gets to be too expensive, prices for everything go up and economic growth slows.
Economic growth is the key here. Without growth, stocks do not make money for their investors. While the working class American might want to take a step back and try a different tack, the money behind our politics will stop at nothing to keep things profitable. So we have a situation where the majority of Americans do not approve of the President and the majority do not like the direction the Iraq war is taking, yet the President will not alter his course nor will he even consider compromising. There is too much at stake for the people with the money.
posted by Andy at
12:31 AM
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