In recent months, when Iraq and Venezuela threatened to cut oil supplies the Bush administration hinted that they would be looking to Africa and other resource rich countries to come up with some oil supplies. What exactly does this mean? If you’re as corrupt and machiavellian as the Bush administration and the CIA it means guns and death at the hands of American troops to make sure the assorted foreign governments are pliant enough.
In April the vile Dick Cheney presented a report which contained some ominous foreign policy implications:
- The United States must satisfy an ever-increasing share of its oil demand with imported supplies. (At present, the United States imports about 10 million barrels of oil per day, representing 53 percent of its total consumption; by 2020, daily U.S. imports will total nearly 17 million barrels, or 65 percent of consumption.)
- The United States cannot depend exclusively on traditional sources of supply like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada to provide this additional oil. It will also have to obtain substantial supplies from new sources, such as the Caspian states, Russia, and Africa.
- The United States cannot rely on market forces alone to gain access to these added supplies, but will also require a significant effort the part of government officials to overcome foreign resistance to the outward reach of American energy companies.
In essence, the Cheney report makes three key points:
A few other interesting links regarding the evil and opportunism present in American foreign policy: