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<div>Sunil et. al.</div>
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<div>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.
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<div>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:
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<div><a href="http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf">http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf</a></div>
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<div>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.
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<div>Ted Moffett</div>
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<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/27/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Sunil Ramalingam</b> <<a href="mailto:sunilramalingam@hotmail.com">sunilramalingam@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"><a href="http://www.juancole.com/2006/12/top-ten-myths-about-iraq-2006-1.html">http://www.juancole.com/2006/12/top-ten-myths-about-iraq-2006-1.html
</a><br><br><br>It appears that the decision for a 'troop surge' has been made, and now a<br>rationale has to be created to justify that decision. To what end?<br><br>Sunil<br><br><br>=======================================================
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