THE REAL SECRET OF US GEOPOLITICS

Since its own oil production peaked and then began declining in 1970, the US gradually became aware that the world's petroleum supplies were limited and would run out eventually after peaking in output. This is called Peak Oil. Petroleum is the lifeblood of modern civilisation in every sense of the word. And that is not a sweeping exaggeration: its advanced technology and high living standards and mode of lifestyle all depend on it. After 1970 the US began to increase its imports of petroleum. Shortly after US production peaked and declined, the 1973 Arab oil embargo showed the Americans how vulnerable and disruptable its supplies of oil were. The US determined where the main global reserves existed, and began drawing up strategic plans for all these contingencies: Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Sheikdoms were the main focus, followed by Iraq and Iran and then the Soviet Union. In 1979, President Carter issued a policy statement proclaiming the right of the US to use force in the Persian Gulf region to defend its "interests" in oil, using the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan as an excuse. This became known as the Carter Doctrine, and was to become the foundation for post-Cold War US policy after a short while, when the US was free of its Soviet entanglement. The US already had a firm footing in the Gulf Arab states and Saudi Arabia; Iraq was a variable, but options were being drawn up to tackle it; it was not a threat at the moment as it was involved in a war with Iran, with convenient US blessings. Thus it was being kept busy for later "treatment", while also engaging a US enemy. The US had stepped up its Cold War rivalry with the USSR using the Soviet action in Afghanistan as a convenient springboard. It hoped to bleed it dry there, and in doing so not only rid itself of its global adversary, but also eyed its vast petroleum potential - in reserves, being the second in the world after the Saudis. The USSR's clout in the world began declining for various reasons in the late 1980s - its defeat and pullout from Afghanistan, Gorbachev's reforms, and the START weapons treaty with the US in 1986. The Soviet Bloc began crumbling in the end of 1988. In that same year, the Iran Iraq war ended in a draw, and Saddam and his army's prestige was buoyed and his attention was freed, to contemplate other things. He was subtly being prodded and set up to annex Kuwait next, by the US with whispers of support -ostensibly to restore morale for his war weary army and nation and regain Kuwait's vast oil supplies, to which Iraq already had an irredentist claim. But this was a carefully contrived American gamble. Saddam Hussein was over-confident, and played into their hands. In 1990 began the Gulf War, and by 1991, it was over with America's Desert Storm having pulverised Iraq even further. The Soviet Union was in its terminal throes, and could pose no threat. The Anglo-American led "allies" set up aerial control and exclusion zones over Iraq, and Saddam and his regime was paralysed, but was allowed to remain in power - as a mere empty shell compared to its former status. It was to be reserved in this handy way, for future consideration. That same year the USSR finally gave way and "went the way of all flesh". President G.W. Bush grandly declared a New World Order of America's supreme overlordship over a "globalising world". The US had been eyeing the Soviet Caspian Sea and Russian oil reserves all along. Now with the demise of the USSR, the way to it was open. While the Russian reserves proper were on Russian territory and the Russian Federation was the USSR's successor - they would be relatively difficult to access and corporate guile would be employed to get at those. But the Caspian was a different case, as its region was now independent of Russian control, and comprised of several small states. But disappointment was to strike American planners, as a few years later it became apparent that the Caspian reserves were far less than had been presumed, and were of a far lesser quality. Still, in order to access the tremendous gas reserves in Turkmenistan, the US played its al-Qaeda and Taliban cards in Afghanistan, so as to use that shattered country as a pipeline conduit, which was to terminate in US ally, Pakistan. The US also permitted Pakistan to partner in this, and to pursue its own various jihadi policies in the region - in an auxiliary role to the main US plan for the region. After the Caspian disappointment, the US strategic planners realised that time was short, and alternate measures to secure oil had to be put in place. So now attention was quickly turned to Iraq, which was now tattered and in a state of limbo. The Taliban regime too, was proving increasingly intransigent in Afghanistan with its US-Pakistani handlers - and becoming a dangerous thorn in their sides. Many therefore say that the US "encouraged" and allowed the 9/11 attacks of 2001 to occur; they knew what the jihadis were brewing against them, but they permitted it to happen - so as to furnish them with the perfect excuse for setting the world aflame - during which melee they would gain an excuse to invade and take direct control of Afghanistan, to secure it as a future geopolitical staging post in the coming complex scenario. And 9/11 would also give them an excuse, albeit very pigheaded, to frame and then invade Iraq. The case in point being the WMD lie regarding Iraq's weapons potential. It fell through later, but it had served its triggering purpose. The 2003 Iraq war was all about oil. As detailed above, it had been on the US agenda for quite long, but when the US found that the Caspian reserves were worthless, the urgency regarding Iraq grew. In the end it will be pertinent to say that even in the case of the impossible scenario of the US appropriating the whole world's petroleum supplies, the rate at which they use - rather misuse - it, will ensure that it will all be depleted within this century. The global power of the US, and indeed its own existence, in the next few years is, therefore, in grave doubt.