Eight Long Years: Where Is Osama Bin Laden?

[Trample the Elderly]

Originally Posted by budw38

How much oil is in Afganistan ? If we only cared for oil , why haven't we stopped supporting Isreal , if we let the Islamic countries in that region destroy Isreal we would have $ 10 barrels of oil . So by your account , even if AL Qaeda / Bin Laden run terror camps out of New Zealand , Bush would have set our troops to Afgan'st ? We were in Iraq / Kuwait in 1991 , how much oil have we taken in almost 20 years ? I'm not saying oil , like any commodity does not have an effect on policy , but in this case I think thats a stretch . After 9-11 , are you suggesting we should have done nothing , thinking they would not try a more deadly attack , just asking ?

There were several gas lines scheduled to run through Afghanistan. Central Asia is the big up and coming spot for oil and natural gas.

Fire Plug seems to be on a somewhat similar understanding of what I and many others have said. It's not just about oil. It's about de-balling the new up and coming threat, China.

Israel isn't important. Why our government supports them is beyond me? The cynical part of me says Jewish votes. I'm no expert? I have no opinion on the matter. I'd rather be tighter with Egypt and Turkey. They probably already have nukes too.

I don't believe what the politicians say, only what they do. There isn't much of a difference in policy regarding oil as a weapon since it was discovered. We control the price and distribution, we win.

What is being done to China now is what was done to Russia in reverse. Russia decided it was more profitable to play on the side of the big dogs. When gasoline goes up to 4$ dollars a gallon the Russians smile and the Chinese cringe.

I don't buy this war on terrorism garbage anymore. If we wanted the Taliban dead, they'd be dead. If Pakistan wanted them dead, they'd be dead. We're being fed sound bites that nice little girls and boys can get behind. The big boys know better.

Consider this: Chinese currency is valued based off of the dollar. They devalue their currency to make their imports cheap. The spend twice as much for oil. The price of oil is based on dollars. The reserve currency of the world is American dollars. Our major allies and proxies are oil rich: Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada, Russia, Kuwait, and a myriad of others. China has next to nothing in oil. Chinese oil infrastucture is inferior. It takes more oil for them to produce energy and they have a hard time burning high sulfur oil. They have to buy light sweet.

This is how nuclear armed superpowers fight, through proxies. It's no different than when we fought the Russians. We never went toe to toe. We faught their proxies: N.Korea, China (not yet a nuclear power), Vietnam, FMLN, Cuba, and all the others we never heard of.