(December 20, 2018 at 9:40 am)Cato Wrote:(December 20, 2018 at 8:30 am)Maketakunai Wrote: All the noise about ISIS and humanitarian efforts has always just been a pretense. We're only there for oil. ISIS will be around for a long time because they're fanatics. Let someone else keep them in check for a while. The only question we should be concerned with is whether or not that oil is worth all the aggravation. If the goal is to use less oil, pollute less, and save the planet from global warming (or whatever) then pulling out of Syria would seem to be a step in the right direction.
Unless of course Elon Musk, the political left, and all the climate change alarmists are all wrong and we really do need the oil...
Based on 2015 production statistics, Syria produced 30K barrels/day (ranked 66th), the U.S. produced 9.41M barrels/day (ranked 3rd). I have seen recent article claiming that the U.S. is now the number one oil producing nation. The U.S. is most assuredly not in Syria for the oil.
Yes, but were fighting ISIS in Syria destabilized the oil producing region. ISIS and Al Qaeda in the middle east disrupt oil production and sales in other countries because their violence isn't resticted to just one country. ISIS wants a Caliphate that transcends borders. The easiest way to get oil into Europe for Kuwait and Iraq is through Syria. Turkey only shares 25% or so of the Iraq border on in the East. Syria and Jordan have the rest on the West side of Iraq and block Iraq from the Mediteranian.
If we don't need the oil then we really don't need Syria.
And.... we only have one real ally in the region. I'm not entirely sure we even need land troops in the Middle East anywhere to help protect Israel, as long as we can ger carriers into the Med...
