Nuestro Petróleo

Antes de la invasión a Irak y del derrocamiento de Saddam, mucha gente sostenía que se trataba de una maniobra de los EE.UU. para asegurarse el acceso a petróleo barato. Seguramente se acuerdan de aquello de “blood for oil”.

Como después de la invasión el barril de petróleo alcanzó valores nominales récord, muy superiores a los previos a la invasión, las críticas sufrieron una interesante metamorfosis. Ahora mucha de esta misma gente sostiene que en realidad EE.UU. invadió Irak para que el precio del barril aumente y de esa manera asegurarles una renta más alta a los amigotes petroleros de Bush.

Como dice The Angry Economist:

Various people claim that we are in Iraq to protect "our oil".

What you mean "our oil", Kimosabe? Yes, many people make the charge that our military presence is in Iraq to protect "our oil"? If that's true, then we ought to be in some way exploiting our franchise. For example, other countries might only be able to buy a limited amount of "our oil". Or we might get "our oil" prior to other countries. Or other countries might have to pay a higher price for "our oil".

I think it's possible to make the case that our military is protecting "our oil". To do so, you would have to present evidence that we are treating it like "our oil". If you can't do that, then you have to make the claim that we are expending treasure and lives to protect other people's access to oil. We might be doing so -- but if we are, you can't argue that we're being selfish.