Jeff Latas, US Congressional Candidate, AZ-8
www.jefflatas.com, Jeff Latas for Congress
For the past 33 years we have been desperately trying to stabilize the Middle Eastern region in order to secure a consistently increasing supply of oil. Our foreign policy, national security, and military planning and expenditures have been geared towards securing a continuing flow of oil. In the future, scholars will look back at the time between the 1973 oil embargo and the eventual end of our dependence on cheap Middle Eastern oil as the era of the "Petroleum Wars."
Even though our interest in the Middle Eastern oil supply developed many years before 1973, our country took notice of how important this resource was during the oil embargo of 1973-74. The Department of Defense quickly recognized the security implications, and began planning to protect this region from a potential invasion of the Soviet Union into Iran and the rest of the Middle East. During the Carter administration, new plans emerged that identified military units under the "Rapid Deployment Force" whose mission was to deploy very quickly to the region to ensure that the flow of oil continued to the developed nations of the world. During those years, 1977-1980, our nation's requirement for Middle Eastern oil decreased by 87% in order to keep this country from being so dependent on this energy source that it may be held hostage once again by foreign interests.
President Carter started this country on a path of energy independence. During his administration, not only did we reduce our requirements for oil, but the Gross National Product grew by 25%, one of the largest growth spurts our nation had seen. Unfortunately, the following administrations moved the country back to a dependence mode of economic growth that would later cost many billions of dollars and lives, increasing destabilization of the Middle East and further polarizing foreign policy.
During the mid 1980s, the U.S. was involved in escorting super tankers in and out of the Persian Gulf. One of our ships was attacked and nearly sunk, and another of our ships mistakenly shot down an airliner full of civilians during this time. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was based on Kuwait's drilling under the border and tapping into Iraqi oil fields. Desert Shield and Desert Storm were about oil and securing the supply to fuel our economy.
Through the 1990s, the brunt of our foreign policy in the region was to keep the flow secure and suppress any country that might restrict that flow. The terrorist attacks of 2001 highlighted how vulnerable the region really was to rogue forces and sparked new interest in taking control of Iraq directly. We are now caught in the quagmire of war in Iraq in our attempt to stabilize the region; however, the opposite is now happening.
The people who live under oppressive regimes in the Middle East are no fans of U.S. foreign policy. Their elitist government officials are the true benefactors of our policies, and they will continue to support the status quo. We must disengage from our current practices and start anew.
We must develop new energy policies that will free us from our current dependence on foreign oil, and we must start with ending our reliance on Middle Eastern oil immediately.
This can be done by offering incentives to consumers to invest in alternative energy for their homes and cars. Corporations should also be encouraged to reduce their requirements for fossil fuels.
Reducing our need for oil will benefit the economy. This was proven between 1977 and 1980. New industries will grow to research and develop alternate energy systems. This will spark the need for increased hiring of scientists and engineers. It will also have profound effects on improving our environment.
The United States is the largest consumer of fossil fuels, and our dependence is growing. In the last five years, we have increased our requirement for oil by 20%. We must stop this addiction and start searching for other methods to power our future.