[Vision2020] PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses

[Ted Moffett]

Sunil et. al.

Thank you.

I should add that I read through Juan Cole's"Top Ten Myths About Iraq" and
found this a well reasoned and factually based piece.

I would love for everyone subscribed to Vision2020 to read "Rebuilding
America's Defenses" from the PNAC site, a serious work of academic military
planning, completed before the 9/11 attacks, to understand that dramatic
increases in US military forces in the Middle East was in the works before
9/11.

The billions being spent on the Iraq war, and the death and suffering
inflicted, is worth it, to some of the cynical realists who control foreign
policy, given this simple equation:

112 billion barrels of oil (Iraq's minimum estimated reserves) X $60 a
barrel equals 6,720,000,000,000 dollars, enough to pay for at least 13
Afghanistan/Iraq wars given the costs so far, though of course this estimate
of revenue generated from this oil is not all profit.

Assuming oil goes over 100 dollars a barrel, which many experts assume is
only a matter of time, and do the math again.

And of course our military presence in Iraq can help to secure far more than
just Iraq's oil reserves, but Saudi Arabia's as well.  We can do the math
again with the figure of Saudi Arabia's estimates of 260 billion barrels of
oil reserves...enough to pay for at least another 30 Afghanistan/Iraq wars,
at $60 a barrel

When considering the financial stake in protecting oil resources, the Iraq
war is a bargain.

Ted Moffett


On 12/27/06, Sunil Ramalingam <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ted,
>
> I certainly think your post spells out the real reason for the Iraq War,
> and
> the reason we are building permanent bases.  The ISG did not disagree with
> this long-term goal in its report.
>
> Sunil
>
>
> >From: "Ted Moffett" <starbliss at gmail.com>
> >To: "Sunil Ramalingam" <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com>
> >CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> >Subject: PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses
> >Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 11:58:17 -0800
> >
> >Sunil et. al.
> >
> >Consider this escalation of the Iraq war (I'm not going to use the
> >euphemism
> >"surge") in the broader context of the Pentagon's goals to increase the
> >size
> >of the US military for a variety of global operations, a goal that once
> >achieved may become the semi-permanent size of US forces, Iraq war or
> not.
> >A good justification is to "win" the war in Iraq via committing more
> >troops.
> >
> >But one way or the other, I believe our military bases will remain in
> Iraq
> >for decades.  Iraq has the third largest reserves of petroleum, behind
> >Saudi
> >Arabia and Canada, and the Middle East overall has the most oil of any
> >area.  The US cannot take the long term risk of Middle East oil under the
> >control of regimes unfriendly to the US, and regime change in Iran, the
> >dominant threat from a potential anti-US/anti-Israeli Islamic super
> >power, has been the main goal of US Middle East policy, with Iraq a mere
> >stepping stone, as the Project For A New American Century spelled out in
> >the
> >late 1990s, in the academic study "Rebuilding America's Defenses"
> presented
> >on the PNAC web site:
> >
> >http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
> >
> >-------------
> >The national security and economy of the US in fifty years, or whenever
> >petroleum depletion signals the fossil fuel golden age is ending, will
> >demand that we can guarantee access to those resources.  Whoever has
> access
> >to the remaining fossil fuel reserves, by force if necessary, when not
> >enough remains to distribute these resources as though all nations on
> Earth
> >have a right to access, will be in control of the global
> economy.  Unless,
> >of course, there are alternative energy sources available to most all
> major
> >nations on Earth, that are practical and affordable, that can replace
> >fossil
> >fuels on the grand scale of energy consumption we now take for granted
> from
> >fossil fuels.
> >
> >Ted Moffett
> >
> >
> >
> >On 12/27/06, Sunil Ramalingam <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>http://www.juancole.com/2006/12/top-ten-myths-about-iraq-2006-1.html
> >>
> >>
> >>It appears that the decision for a 'troop surge' has been made, and now
> a
> >>rationale has to be created to justify that decision.  To what end?
> >>
> >>Sunil
> >>
> >>
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