Oil, guns and money

Oil, guns and money

What's really behind the recent redeployment of U.S. military forces? Making sure no one messes with American access to global energy resources. An excerpt from "Oil: Anatomy of an Industry."

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By Matthew Yeomans



Sept. 2, 2004 | When President Bush announced a radical redeployment of some 70,000 active duty U.S. military personnel currently based in Western Europe and Asia in mid-August, he stressed that this new agile military would be focused on combating terrorism and fostering global stability. What he didn't mention is that the newly dispersed Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force will also be busy protecting another key component of U.S. national security -- its energy resources.

The plan, which the Pentagon has been explaining in dribs and drabs over the past year, is to rotate troops through a large number of bases scattered all over the world, with special attention given to the so-called "arc of instability" running through the Caribbean rim, Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, North Korea and the Caucasus. The new formation includes boosting new regional hub bases as well as establishing minimally-staffed forward operating bases that might house just a few dozen troops but could be quickly transformed into action-ready staging bases.

One look at a map of current Pentagon troop deployment demonstrates how the Pentagon sees its 21st century dual mission. Since 2001, new military bases have been established in Eastern Europe and Central Asia -- including Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan -- allowing the U.S. to keep watch over the Islamic tinderbox of Central Asia and the strategically crucial Caspian Sea oil region which will soon supply millions of barrels of oil to the U.S. and Western Europe markets. Other bases in Afghanistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Oman (not to mention the huge military garrison in Iraq), guarantee a strong and long-term presence in the Persian Gulf, while new pacts with Nigeria and other West African nations will ensure the U.S. military keeps a watchful eye on another important oil region, the Gulf of Guinea.

Energy security has been a mainstay of U.S. foreign policy ever since Franklin Roosevelt pledged to provide military protection to Saudi Arabia in return for unfettered access to the Kingdom's oil. In 1980, the so-called Carter Doctrine declared the U.S.'s intention to intervene militarily to counter any threat to Middle East security. And in May 2001, Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy announced that the Bush administration would make "energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy." The most recent redeployment of military forces is just one more reaffirmation that in the post-Cold War global order, preserving access to energy resources is the prime strategic imperative.

The seeds of the latest twist in new energy protection policy were sown in 2002 when Congress authorized $98 million for U.S. troops and equipment to help the Colombian army protect oil pipelines owned by California company Occidental. The pipelines were regular targets of the FARC and ELN, the two main leftist rebel groups in Colombia's 40-year civil war. In the spring of 2003, just as U.S. forces were invading Iraq, a far smaller group of 70 Green Berets flew into Colombia to secure Oxy's pipeline.

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http://www.salon.com/tech/books/2004/09/02/oil/print.html