Quote of the day, or at least for me, from the ever impressive Nur AC:

Concerning the “Kill them all” thread below, the US is doomed to “cut and run” for the following reason: The Arab world has only 25% of the oil.

The other 75% is elsewhere….as the world’s largest consumer of oil and about to face stiff competion from India and China, what do you do?

Remain in the quagmire, or position yourself in Africa, Central Asia and South America?

Of course, I’m not counting on Bush to get anything right.
Nûr al-Cubicle

Another way to frame it: if you were told, “you’ll need to spend a very bloody $300B in a protracted engagement which will cost you all your friends and ruin some of your grandchildren’s easy futures, but will ultimately reap $400 trillion, would you do it?”

Thinking about long term, global, “realpolitiks” in the Peak Oil economies of the world often is hard for us on the left. Try, for a minute, to think like an oil broker.