US military subsidy of Mid-East oil

This is quite misleading...

>[...]
>
>The US government pays the tab for protecting the world's oil supply
>but only relies on Mid-East oil for 30% of its domestic consumption.
>
[...]

>Meanwhile, Asia is a huge importer
>
>http://www.iht.com/articles/1745.html
>
>"Asia, led by its four largest economies Japan, China, South Korea
>and India imports 60 percent of its oil. The International Energy
>Agency in Paris expects this figure to rise to almost 90 percent in
>2020, ``with a corresponding increase in Asian vulnerability to any
>oil supply interruption."
>
The US also currently imports about 60 percent of its oil - it's just
that only half of those imports come from the Middle East, the others
come from slightly more friendly countries like Russia, Venezuela,
Colombia, etc. US imports could well rise just as high in 20 years,
since US recoverable oil is far less than what can be recovered in the
Middle East. And because the US as a whole uses so much energy (about 25
% of the world's energy use if I recall correctly) and that such a large
fraction of that goes to power vehicles (requiring oil) compared to most
other countries, US oil consumption is an even higher percentage of the
world total.

>
>So, US citizens pay and the benefits accrue mainly to Europe and
>Asia.
>

As far as Europe goes, at least for now, that is simply false - remember
Britain and Norway are net exporters of oil? Russia, which is both in
Europe and in Asia has enormous oil reserves. France gets a huge
fraction of its energy needs from nuclear power, and cannot be
classified as oil dependent either.

The benefits of Middle East interventionism, such as they are, actually
do accrue mainly to US citizens. And the critical dependency on foreign
oil is here, not elsewhere. The Kyoto accords, which most of the world
has signed on to, actually lead toward reducing dependence on oil, but
that's apparently not in the cards for the US.

As far as long-term energy issues and the level of funding needed (and
yes the R&D required would be considerably less than even one year's US
military budget) I wrote an essay reviewing the recent study published
in Science magazine, which received quite a few comments:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/11/11/83056/403

Space solar power actually seems to be getting quite a bit of
credibility - a 23% vote in the completely non-scientific poll there. So
there's hope!

Arthur