National Priorities Project Report:
Military Cost Of Securing Oil & Gas
The US-based NATIONAL PRIORITIES PROJECT have issued a new report showing that somewhere between $97bn and $215bn will be spent in 2009 by the US government on securing, and defending, Oil & Gas fields in foreign lands. This staggering amount represents up to 30% of the American's overall military budget, according to this rather probing report, which also manages to highlight the huge US troop numbers that are situated around the globe. The report's authors, Dr. Anita Dancs (Asst. Professor of Economics at Western New England College), and Suzanne Smith (Research Director at National Priorities Project), spent two months using two different processes, and have concluded that the US government will spend either $97bn or $215bn, according to which process you follow. The figure is possibly somewhere in the middle of those two, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the American administration will do what they need to, to keep this hush-hush. Especially considering the current financial climate and the increasing global majority view that the Iraq & Afghanistan wars were un-justified. The cost of the Iraq war is not included in these figures.
October.15.2008 - George Valentine Corr, Blatant News Editor
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WHERE ARE US SOLDIERS BASED?
The US military has its own set of zones in the world for military use. When putting together the report, the authors analyzed overall US troop numbers in these different zones and were surprised to see so few US troops assigned to "NORTHCOM", the region that contains the States itself. This is because the US is guarded against nuclear attacks, but they have no military strategy for a large-scale conventional invasion of America. To get an idea of the scale of American military presence around the globe, here is a quick run-down of those zones and the troop numbers for 2007. "AFRICOM" is a brand new zone and is not included in these figures.
LINKS BETWEEN MILITARY & OIL
What's the bets that if lakes of oil were discovered under the Vatican City, a US-backed dictatorship would be put in place for the next 25 years? Well, it's certainly very possible, if history is anything to go by. This report goes some way to linking US military presence & the presence of oil. BTW, here are some graphs, taken from the report, that show us where our future oil & gas is situated. Well, the stuff we know about atleast.... now you can see why the US is so hung up on the Middle East in general.
DEFEND OIL OR DEVELOP RENEWABLES?
Clearly the point of this report is to highlight the fact that all this war need not be made in the name of oil (and gas), why don't we just spend some time, energy & cash on finding renewable sources of energy? You know, stuff that wont harm our planet or start wars. The reports authors will hope that this report can help that be achieved, in some small way.
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