Oil, politics, God, power and war.
Let's start with a news item from today.
Quote:Trump’s focus on protecting oil in Syria highlights an evolving U.S. mission
WP
Some of you will recall Greenspan's memoir published in 2007 where he voiced the following:
Quote:In his long-awaited memoir - out tomorrow in the US - Greenspan, 81, who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two decades, writes: 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.'
Guardian
And you'll probably recall, near the outset of that war, the massive looting of Iraq National Museum which held an enormous trove of archaeological artifacts from the cradle of western civilization. You might also recall Donald Rumsfeld minimizing the tragic losses, describing images of the looting as follows; "It's the same man removing the same vase in all these photos". But if you aren't an archaeological buff, you probably won't know that before the war's outset, the Bush adminstration (Rumsfeld's office) had been alerted by the archaeological community of the unusually important collection of historical items in this museum and had received assurances that the museum would be protected by US troops. They weren't. While at the very same time as the looting was taking place, Rumsfeld had put in place a ring of troops to guard Iraq's ministry of oil building to keep it secure. You also may not know that thousands of the items looted from the museum remain missing today.
You may or may not also know that twenty-five years ago, the Republican Party of Texas saw fit to include in their party platform the claim that global warming was a myth while at the same time advocating for religious education (of the fundamentalist christian sort) in public schools. That alliance between oil industry entities and fundamentalist religious groups has only grown stronger in the last quarter century. The fundamentalist focus on Israel is intimately associated (though most fundamentalist christians don't recognize it) is intimately associated with Israel's geography - in the center of a huge oil producing region. If Israel had been established in Greenland or Manitoba or some other place far removed from oil fields, American interest in that country would be negligible.
All of the above points to the absolute necessity of decreasing the power and influence of fossil fuel industry in the nation and in the world and in moving towards renewable energy. It is not simply that the fossil fuel industry is concerned with financial travails, it is that because energy from renewables can be gathered/produced locally. And that means that political power and influence can be redistributed broadly across the world rather than being held, as it is now, by the consortiums tied together in the existing fossil fuel system.
