Posted on 03/28/2011 1:21:20 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
The best-laid plans of lice and men...
I think they are content to let nature take its course, because it gives them that much more time to generate more chaos.
The thing is, there are a lot of Saudi royals. I don’t think Abdullah or his brothers, all of whom are well on in years, have left the plan for continuation of the dynasty to chance. There is likely a whole lot of internecine wrangling going on as to who will become King, though.
Also, the prophecy includes Yemenis marching on Mecca, which is the source of Saudi power in the Islamic world. So, the Iranians need to make sure Yemen is capable of taking Mecca. Another reason they need some more time.
No one, however, has addressed a couple of likely outcomes that I have been wondering about.
1) We lose Saudi to the jihadis and oil goes to $200/bbl, with Latin America and Pacific Muslim nations embargoing The US and Europe. Result: the US ramps up drilling, increases coal utilization, makes energy deals with Europe and, along with Canada, goes into direct economic confrontation with Russia over supplying European oil.
2) All heck breaks loose in the ME, there is a nuclear exchange, the oil is contaminated at the source. Result: the same as in 1).
It is all well and good for the Greens to get rid of nuclear energy and for all the alternatives to slowly evolve to a point where they could replace some fossil fuel, but a sudden loss of ME oil is going to send the entire globe into an economic death spiral. No country is going to voluntarily decrease energy usage.
Interesting.
Oil/ Energy? There is loads of it here. Some of it is a function of price like the competing alternatives. If we were in tough, we could get by without the mideast... which would throw them into turmoil too. Russia? If the going gets tough, they may well fold in with Europe or vice versa. Imagine Russians being near Europeans again?
Oil contaminated at source? I dunno. How many of their cities sit right on top of the oil and how far will radiation penetrate the soils/ sand?
How many of their cities sit right on top of the oil and how far will radiation penetrate the soils/ sand?
_______________________________________
A direct hit isn’t necessary. I think we are seeing in Japan that radioactivity travels.
Probably the negative effect would be mostly psychological, but I could envision a lot of hysteria over any radioactivity in oil.
Yep. You are quite right. Chinese pollution has been coming here for years already and as a developing nation with NO controls it will only get worse.
I doubt very much that the oil itself would get contaminated, its in a pretty secure location. A few good blasts could possibly fracture some formations and force their oil wealth to dissipate.... then watch the migration to Europe!
The unfortunate thing is the longer Iran drags this out, the more expensive its going to be. They will have more weapons and they WILL use them... its not if. They will.
PING
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.