Bacevich in Politico: ISIL Not U. S. Problem
Andrew Bacevich, Professor Emeritus at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that changing oil and gas markets in the western hemisphere meant that the Islamic State, while a destabilizing presence in Middle East politics, posed little direct threat to the U. S.
Bacevich made his argument in a wide-ranging op-ed written on July 25 for Politico entitled “ISIL Is a Problem, But Not America’s Problem.”
From the text of the op-ed:
The story began with oil and even today oil tells the story, albeit with an ironic twist. In our day, it’s not Saudi Arabia and Iraq that the United States should worry about defending, but Canada and Venezuela. Given startling adjustments in estimates of accessible global oil and natural gas reserves, the United States can count on being able to satisfy its energy requirements by drawing entirely on sources within its own hemisphere for many decades to come. We don’t need the Gulf.
So although ISIL is as vile and vicious an organization as humankind has managed to produce in recent memory, it does not pose a particular danger to the United States. In terms of immediate threats to their wellbeing, Americans would do better to focus their attention on the vile and vicious Mexican drug lords, whose despicable activities wreak havoc across American society on a daily basis.
You can read the entire op-ed here.
Bacevich is the author of Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013). Learn more about him here.