Special Feature: A Message From U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar

A New Front in Middle East Policy

  

For too long the United States has ignored the consequences of its excessive dependence on imported oil. But the worsening economic and strategic impact of that dependence means we can no longer put off making significant policy changes.

Global competition for oil continues to grow as demand soars and oil-rich states tighten their control over supplies. Already, we have witnessed Russia cut its exports to selected countries for political gain, and the governments of Iran and Venezuela have both threatened to do the same. Each year, Americans spend hundreds of billions of dollars to import oil. Some of that money enriches authoritarian governments that suppress their own people and work against the United States. Meanwhile, terrorists are targeting oil infrastructure. The threat is so severe that Saudi Arabia has announced that it will organize a security force of 35,000 members to protect its oil infrastructure. In today’s tight oil market even a small disruption in oil supplies could cause shortages and send prices much higher. In the future, we might face a situation in which there simply is not enough oil available to meet our needs.

A credible, well-publicized campaign in the United States to definitively change the oil import equation would reverberate throughout the Middle East.  It would be the equivalent of opening a new front in Middle Eastern policy that does not depend on more military expenditures or the good will of any other country.

See Senator Lugar, Page 8