Oil, The Elites, And The Commons

…The preservation of secured sources of abundant energy has long been a priority of the American elites and their European counterparts. The Euro-Atlantic Community or “Axis” — the First World — has pursued similar policies for over 100 years, through either soft or hard power. The abundance of energy is the indispensable lubricant to run our economic engines. Until the 1970s, energy was cheap and plentiful, but in spite of a few ups and downs in the market, experts were forecasting the end of abundance. We were imperceptibly entering an era of energy scarcity. No sooner had the Soviet Union joined the dustbins of history did the Euro-Atlantic Axis take a strong stance to secure the energy realm of the future. It began with the first Gulf War and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, and it led to the scenario that befuddles us now.

Energy policies are not driven by quarterly profits. Rational people in the corridors of power take a much longer view — 20, 30 years at a minimum. Having long espoused the ideological core of the capitalist system — private property, free markets, free trade, collective defense mechanisms, representative democracy — they enact policies of coercion that have been working for ages. They assiduously have attempted to secure the most strategic area of the planet: The Middle East and Central Asia (Eurasia). Between 1990 and 2004, they tried to bring Russia with her extraordinary energy resources into their privatizing and “occidentalized” paradigm. By destroying Yugoslavia they cleared the way, or the corridors — the “New Silk Road” — to the East as far as the borders with China. They are fast at work to bring the Black Sea region under the control of the Euro-Atlantic institutions by competing strenuously with Russia, as this paper, “The ‘Soft War’ for Europe’s East” (Hoover Institution, Policy Review, June-July 2006), authored by the ubiquitous insider Bruce P. Jackson, or the November 2006 Strategic Briefing from the Henry Jackson Society, “Europe needs a new ‘Russia Policy’ based on principles and power,” clearly demonstrate.

The journey in Iraq and our forthcoming escalation to Iran must be seen in this context. Look at a geographical map. Iran and Iraq are the last two countries that must be brought under control in order to secure the so-called Greater Middle East for the next two or three decades, until we work out alternatives to petroleum depletion, and to keep China at bay. (Syria is of no real strategic importance, as it has no oil; we’ll offer up regime change as a gift to our friendly vassals in the region.) There is little divergence among the players in Europe and in the United States. The elites have common objectives but differ on the tactics. Hence the much maligned French, and to a lesser degree Germans, tagged as “Old Europe” by Mr. Rumsfeld — hard power versus soft power. The current US administration elected the former course of action. Old Europe considered the latter more appropriate. Both, however, strive for the same construct: The Euro-Atlantic dominance of the energy market for the foreseeable future.

Whether Peak Oil is crushing upon us — a matter of speculation, both intellectually and financially, or that is officially denied or ignored by the likes of British Petroleum or the US Energy Information Administration statistical reviews — is rather inconsequential. Europe and Northern America keep their eyes on the prize. Our way of life depends on it.

Swans.com