Let's get the facts straight about the importance of Persian Gulf oil to
the U.S., now and in the future.  Here are snippets from web-docs to which
I give the URLs:

  "The Middle East is still an important source of petroleum for the rest
of the world and contrary to popular belief, the relative importance of the
region as a source of supply is set to expand, not decline.  Saudi Arabia
alone has 25% of the world's known oil reserves and Iraq 10%.

  "It goes without saying that stability in the Middle East and continuity
of oil supply at constant prices is right now an important strategic
objective for the whole Western world - including the EU which is the
word's 2nd largest oil and gas consumer.

  "Supply and Demand 2001:
While the United States imports 55.47% of its daily petroleum consumption,
only 28% comes from OPEC countries and only 14.03% from the Middle East
Gulf States."
-- http://www.eurolegal.org/usmideast3.htm#INTRO

The above figures are contradicted by another report:

"During 2001, about 48 percent of U.S. crude oil imports came from the
Western Hemisphere (19 percent from South America, 15 percent from Mexico,
and 14 percent from Canada), while 30 percent came from the Persian Gulf
region (18 percent from Saudi Arabia, 9 percent from Iraq, and 3 percent
from Kuwait).
http://www.cis.state.mi.us/mpsc/reports/energy/02summer/oilimports.htm

But forget current percentages of imports.  Ask, rather: Is the U.S. really
going to be less dependent on Middle Eastern oil in the future?  Read this
beginning of a recent article in the NY Times:

"Growing US Need for Oil From
the Mideast Is Forecast
By Jeff Gerth
New York Times
December 26, 2002

"As President Bush seeks to reduce American reliance on oil imported from
the Persian Gulf, new government studies predict that in two decades the
West will be even more dependent on oil from Saudi Arabia and other Middle
Eastern producers. ...

Late last month, the Department of Energy's Energy Information
Administration forecast that in 2025 the majority — 51 percent — of world
oil production would come from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries. About two-thirds of OPEC production, in turn, emanates from the
Persian Gulf. The Energy Information Administration, or E.I.A., says OPEC
now produces 38 percent of the world's oil.

The information administration projects that Saudi Arabia will need to
produce 22 million barrels a day by 2020 to meet increased world demand,
far in excess of its current production of about 8 million barrels. "We're
going to rely more and more on the Middle East markets for oil," said Fatih
Birol, the chief economist for the Paris-based International Energy Agency,
or I.E.A. The group's recent World Energy Outlook, which estimates energy
markets through 2030, mirrors the forecast of the American energy agency."
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2002/1226need.htm

==Dan



>U.S. oil comes from Venezuela, Mexico, & Nigeria, not the mideast.
>European oil comes from the Mideast. Japanese oil comes from the
>mideast. Some place in the Cantos there is a line or two about someone
>scrabbling through the soil of Persia looking for oil. (Iraqi & Arabian
>oil came much later.) Pound was touching there on one of the major
>sources of World War I.
>
>The outcome of the Iraqi War will be U.S. control of the lifeblood of
>the EU and Japan. We could be seeing the opening stages of a replay of
>sorts of World War I. The U.S. & England against Europe -- with the
>other players (India, China, Japan, Russia) to line up on either side
>depending on future events.
>
>This is the _only_ "rational" reason for this war. The official claims
>are pure nonsense, and no war being needed for _access_ to oil, but only
>for _control_ of oil which the U.S. does not itself need.
>
>Carrol