Gas flares from an oil production platform at the Soroush oil fields with an Iranian flag in the foreground in the Persian Gulf, 1,250 km (776 miles) south of the capital Tehran. Reuters.
CNN: Some U.S. senators want to start oil war with Iran
As Secretary of State John Kerry tried to sell the Iran nuclear deal to Congress Tuesday, some U.S. senators were ready to start an oil war with Iran.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is sponsoring a bill to lift the ban on exporting American crude oil. Send U.S. oil abroad, she argues, so America can "compete against our foes in a way that doesn't involve sending our troops in and boots on the ground."
In other words, let the U.S. and Iran go head to head on the world oil market.
It's a timely debate. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, she asked why the U.S. would lift sanctions on Iran so it can export its oil, yet keep a ban in place on American oil exports.
WNU Editor: At least someone in the US government is trying to do some strategic thinking when it comes to Iran.
WNU,
ReplyDeleteI agree totally with your comment. I could not have expressed this better myself. I've been saying this for quite some time. Increase our oil production and our exports and we do more for America's national security and economic interests than anything we are currently doing.
Unfortunately the top priorities of the US government to date for many years have been 1.)fighting the myth of global warming, 2.)trying carve a state of "Palestine" out of the land of our most reliable ally Israel, 3.)doing all it can to advance "gay rights", and 4.)undermining law enforcement in the name of "civil rights" or whatever.
It's problematic for someone to engage in strategic thinking when they are shackled by such stupidity. God willing these actions are the stirrings of change. Now as for strategic thinking with regards to Iran, Iran is going to have nuclear weapons, the sanctions will be fully lifted, the weapons embargo will be fully lifted, and this agreement no matter how good or bad it may be cannot be enforced as there's simply no way to ensure Iranian compliance. How do we plan for this? Releasing more of our own oil would seem to be a good start. At least we could have some leverage when dealing with foreign suppliers that we do not currently have. Furthermore we may be able to get the support of other nations that we export to because they need what we have to offer to help present a unified front against Iran.