you make some sound points, but do you seriously compare a group of criminals to some of the most powerful countries of XX century?
U.S. ended up in the best overall situation after WWII, because it managed to stay extremely strong economy-wise. In 1980-s, USSR overspread itself to so many fronts, which lead to its collapse. And again, less aggressive US policy allowed for a much better results. Why repeat their mistakes?
Just look what happened in the world during last 10. China, Russia, India, Brazil are in much better economic shape, cut their debt, had enormous economic grows. None of them has troops abroad, but somehow their national interest are intact and nobody attacks them. We, on the other hand, only increased our debt, lost thousands of lives, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people and alienated many allies. Do you feel more secure as a result?
Regarding oil. The cost of oil was less than $20/barrel before the war. Now it’s about $100. Import from middle east constitutes less than 50% of US supply. Even if some evil forces came to power over there and flatly refused to trade with us, what would happen? Could the price go up 5 times? No way! We could pay double to other oil producers, and buy as much as we needed. And those Arab countries would still have to sell their oil to someone, thus filling demand on the market. The high oil price today is a result of uncertainty. Markets are afraid of another war that could completely cut oil supply from the region, and THAT is the reason for todays prices.
