It's Not About the Oil?

Brendan O'Neill is on his "it's not about the oil" tip again. As I have said before, it's not only about the oil. To go out of your way to marginalize the oil issue, which is what O'Neill repeatedly does, is sheer folly.

Whenever you talk about the geopolitical alignments within the Middle East, oil is the subtext. What makes things tricky is that the politics of oil get intertwined with other issues. So, Justin Raimondo, et al. can spout off about "this is a war for Israel's benefit," again marginalizing the oil issue, but this fails to take into account that one of the principal reasons for the American support of Israel, historically, has been its strategic function as a sort of Western buffer for Arab nationalism. A strong sense of Arab nationalism, of course, would mean that oil profits and distribution networks within the Middle East would be regulated internally, and not dominated by Western interests.

All of this is assumed and internalized at the highest echelons of power. With the current Bush junta, all you have to read is the Baker Institute/CFR report to realize how crucial oil is to their strategic thinking.

Nonetheless, O'Neill is right to caution those who oppose the war from laying all of their eggs in one basket.