[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PraiseDoom', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KingM', 'W')asn't 2007 the year of the crash according to the biggest doomers on the site? Actually, wasn't it 2006, and before that, 2005?

[malcomatic_51]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MattSavinar', 'O')bviously I hope he is wrong, but it gels with my own sense of things: link I will probably be at my contingency location full-time inside of this year if the cookie crumbles correctly, even if this anaylsis is totally incorrect. If it is correct, this leaves without the extra 5-to-10 years or so years I need to even come close to getting a piece of land and getting it off the grid.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('malcomatic_51', 'U')K oil production peaked in 2000 and has declined by nearly half since then. The decline is accelerating.

[idomar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', 'O')h, and just curious, what is a "saloon?" - Here that would be a pub/bar.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('idomar', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gnm', 'O')h, and just curious, what is a "saloon?" - Here that would be a pub/bar.

[PraiseDoom]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'D')o you realize you are only the slightest shade of color different from a rapture believing fundamentalist christian, both weary of this degenerate world sharing in a belief that a mighty hand will come and sweep away the detritus in vindication of your beliefs.

[malcomatic_51]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'A')nd if anyone was bothering to look at some of the data produced by the real geologists on this site, you would quickly realize that production is not going to fall off a cliff in the next 5 years. There are too many projects coming online that will be able to compensate for the decline in the current elephants.

[PraiseDoom]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', ' ')but the dire predictions of economic collapse in the next 2 years are not based on science and logic. Instead, people are creating scenarios based on pure emotional whim and fantasy.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', '.')..Saloon in America: I love how this website gives me the opportunity to learn so much about foreign cultures. ...

[Joe0Bloggs]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he interdependency amongst the elite, among corporations and governmets to keep the plates spinning for as long as possible is well understood and they will find increasingly desperate ways to prevent chaos and scenarios that lead us toward collapse. I think the area to focus on is what are the tipping points that will cause countries to abandon cooperation and go for unilateral survival. Certainly the US invasion of Iraq will be viewed in hindsight as the opening act.

[Joe0Bloggs]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he interdependency amongst the elite, among corporations and governmets to keep the plates spinning for as long as possible is well understood and they will find increasingly desperate ways to prevent chaos and scenarios that lead us toward collapse. I think the area to focus on is what are the tipping points that will cause countries to abandon cooperation and go for unilateral survival. Certainly the US invasion of Iraq will be viewed in hindsight as the opening act.

[Monk]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', ' ')Alcohol is considered to be a contributer to social disorder much like tobacco and firearms. It is NOT a place for innocent fun no more so is a casino. If you visit America you'll notice alcohol can be very pricey. The government imposes a very heavy tax on alcohol and this is considered justified because of all the "trouble" that alcohol causes to society. Yes America is a different country!

[mmasters]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Joe0Bloggs', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he interdependency amongst the elite, among corporations and governmets to keep the plates spinning for as long as possible is well understood and they will find increasingly desperate ways to prevent chaos and scenarios that lead us toward collapse. I think the area to focus on is what are the tipping points that will cause countries to abandon cooperation and go for unilateral survival.

Certainly the US invasion of Iraq will be viewed in hindsight as the opening act.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mmasters', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Joe0Bloggs', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he interdependency amongst the elite, among corporations and governmets to keep the plates spinning for as long as possible is well understood and they will find increasingly desperate ways to prevent chaos and scenarios that lead us toward collapse. I think the area to focus on is what are the tipping points that will cause countries to abandon cooperation and go for unilateral survival.

Certainly the US invasion of Iraq will be viewed in hindsight as the opening act.

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mmasters', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Joe0Bloggs', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he interdependency amongst the elite, among corporations and governmets to keep the plates spinning for as long as possible is well understood and they will find increasingly desperate ways to prevent chaos and scenarios that lead us toward collapse. I think the area to focus on is what are the tipping points that will cause countries to abandon cooperation and go for unilateral survival.

Certainly the US invasion of Iraq will be viewed in hindsight as the opening act.

[Tyler_JC]

Give me 200 billion dollars, 200,000 soldiers, the support of the US Congress, and carte blanche to ignore international law...and I'll get you most of Iraq's important oil facilities.

If you step within 1 mile of America's Oil Field Complex (formally known as southern Iraq)...you die.

We clearly aren't doing that right now.

Map of Iraq's Oil Fields

If you'll notice, the overwhelming majority of Iraq's oil wealth is within a relatively small, underpopulated section of desert.

It is not difficult to maintain control over an area like that, especially given our level of military technology.

The difficult part is rebuilding an entire country the size of Texas, setting up a democracy, playing mediator between two warring factions of Islamic fundamentalists, etc.

Don't tell me it's not physically possible, because it is.

What's impossible is doing this while maintaining the support of other nations.

[Gerben]

Your map doesn't show the Kirkuk area, which also contains significant amounts of oil (and which is a relatively quiet region). More oil should lie undiscovered in the Western desert (also easy to defend). Just build a fence around Baghdad and evacuate troops from the Sunni triangle. Let the Iraqi's fight it out there and keep those pumps going.

[Twilight]

There are a lot of towns in that area, US forces found that to their cost when they bypassed them in the original invasion. Not to mention the Marsh Arabs, who would suffer again. It's not all desert. You would have to depopulate the outskirts of towns.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'T')here are a lot of towns in that area, US forces found that to their cost when they bypassed them in the original invasion. Not to mention the Marsh Arabs, who would suffer again. It's not all desert. You would have to depopulate the outskirts of towns.

[Twilight]

It would mean rebuilding the infrastructure afterwards. In the West, you generally don't run pipelines past housing complexes, elsewhere that happens. Not in every case it would carry oil or gas, it could as easily be water for the same process, but elsewhere I've seen proximity so scary, if anyone started shooting, you'd make a mess of it for sure.

It does actually make sense to try to preserve what you've got, at this stage at least. So long as the ancient facilities creak along, it makes no sense to start over. Especially not at the cost of officially rebranding yourself as the bad guy. I think we are a long long way from any scenario like that. In the meantime, you could call it a pragmatic approach to theft - why kill and steal for something you can obtain by coercion?