The Chinese notice, apparently.
Iran's oil exports will shrink to zero in 20 years, just at the demographic inflection point when the costs of maintaining an aged population will crush its state finances... Just outside Iran's present frontiers lie the oil resources of Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and not far away are the oil concentrations of eastern Saudi Arabia. Its neighbors are quite as alarmed as Washington about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, and privately quite happy for Washington to wipe out this capability.
It is remarkable how quickly an international consensus has emerged for the eventual use of force against Iran. Chirac's indirect reference to the French nuclear capability was a warning to Tehran. Mohamed ElBaradei, whose Nobel Peace Prize last year was awarded to rap the knuckles of the United States, told Newsweek that in the extreme case, force might be required to stop Iran's acquiring a nuclear capability. German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that the military option could not be abandoned, although diplomatic efforts should be tried first. Bild, Germany's largest-circulation daily, ran Iranian President Mahmud Ahmedinejad's picture next to Adolf Hitler's, with the headline, "Will Iran plunge the world into the abyss?"
...Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have the most to lose from a nuclear-equipped Iran. No one can predict when the Saudi kingdom might become unstable, but whenever it does, Iran will stand ready to support its Shi'ite co-religionists, who make up a majority in the kingdom's oil-producing east.
...By far the biggest loser in an Iranian confrontation with the West will be China, the fastest-growing among the world's large economies, but also the least efficient in energy use. Higher oil prices will harm China's economy more than any other, and Beijing's reluctance to back Western efforts to encircle Iran are understandable in this context...
Darth Rumsfeld's now covert Office of Special Plans seems to have its own ideas for China.
They seem to believe there's no blank check without endless war, but taking on China may end their Crusade unpleasantly.
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3 comments:
That nicely sums it up
mynewsbot.com
The biggest problem with the neighbor's fear of Iran's oil running dry and breeding aggression should be obvious: Their own oil is drying up, too!
Within a couple decades there won't be enough worth fighting over.
Anyone that relies on a news service bot to select what they want to read about anything is asking for a frontal lobotomy.
Just sayin'.
Jay, as always, you got the gist of it. As I've posted before, the goal seems to be to lord it over all the turf they can and surf down on top of the declining wave of energy supply and living standards.
When it's over, we'll have a post-industrial feudalism, with technology only for the Princes of the Dominion.
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