Does U.S. oil independence really change the strategic importance of the middle east and therefore U.S “need” to control it? Will we “need” to keep the remaining oil which will become incredibly cheap out of the hands of emerging competing nations. What happens when we won’t buy the oil and won’t let oil rich nations sell it either. I just don’t think the US is going to let that treasure go like that? Perhaps it will be deemed necessary to keep China or India or whoever from coming and taking it along with perhaps the most strategically important piece of real estate in the history of the planet and a little canal with it?