[Aaron]

Recent news items seem to indicate that terrorist groups around the world recognize what many other believe; that oil is the ultimate WMD, and the Achilles heel of western cultures.

While an atomic explosion in downtown... well anywhere would be bad, imagine the effects of a real disruption in oil supplies.

In-line with America's adventure-ism around the world, and particularly in Iraq, should the US not demand a clear and accurate reporting of oil reserve estimates from all the major producers? If oil is the potential weapon it seems it is, and with terror groups openly admitting to attempts in using it as such, does this not fall into the category of global terrorism?

Perhaps the day when the US will announce to the United Nations that "Weaponized Oil" constitutes a clear and present danger to the world, and producers must allow UN inspectors to verify the validity of reserve claims over 500mb is near.

Thoughts?

[gg3]

Your main thesis I agree with, your corollary I'm not so certain of quite yet.

Oil as terr weapon is an excellent case of "not-doing," i.e. subtracting something society needs, has as much impact as adding something that is actively detrimental. So, yes, this is a serious vulnerability that needs to be addressed.

I'm not so sure about requiring the oil producing countries to publicize their reserves. For one thing, I don't know of any means by which a world body could do it effectively, i.e. there's still plenty of room for cheating, and policing it would be almost impossible.

Second, we were getting good information from Saudi via CIA case officer Plame, until some vengeful idiot in the Administration blew her cover. This is one of many absolutely stunning examples of abject incompetence in the present Administration's handling of the war. Falling headlong for Iranian spies being another.

So for our own national security we need a new Administration that has some actual on-the-ground experience of warfare, and has a better appreciation for the necessities of protecting intelligence sources & methods.

[Cool Hand Linc]

Can America declare anything they want a weapon? That is kind of scary to think about actually.

Thoughts? My head is hurting now.
Link

[Soft_Landing]

gg3 wrote:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'m not so sure about requiring the oil producing countries to publicize their reserves. For one thing, I don't know of any means by which a world body could do it effectively, i.e. there's still plenty of room for cheating, and policing it would be almost impossible.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'R')ecent news items seem to indicate that terrorist groups around the world recognize what many other believe; that oil is the ultimate WMD, and the Achilles heel of western cultures.

While an atomic explosion in downtown... well anywhere would be bad, imagine the effects of a real disruption in oil supplies.

In-line with America's adventure-ism around the world, and particularly in Iraq, should the US not demand a clear and accurate reporting of oil reserve estimates from all the major producers? If oil is the potential weapon it seems it is, and with terror groups openly admitting to attempts in using it as such, does this not fall into the category of global terrorism?

Perhaps the day when the US will announce to the United Nations that "Weaponized Oil" constitutes a clear and present danger to the world, and producers must allow UN inspectors to verify the validity of reserve claims over 500mb is near.

Thoughts?

[Subjectivist]

The thing is, so long as the Persian Gulf continues to be a large percentage of world oil trade they will have a lot of political influence. Add in the fact that any real large scale war tageting oil export terminals in the Persian Gulf could stop exports for six to twenty four months until peace is enforced and repairs are made creates a serious WMD aspect. If God forbid ISIS or some other terrorists got a functional nuke bomb they could do more world economic harm blowing up the big Saudi export terminal than just about any other use of it.