I must be drinking the speculation kool-aid or something. But one aspect of blogging for me is looking at what we should be doing if we are going to carry out a specific mission.
And if we are going to hit Iran, the major threat that can't be dealt with by our military is the oil weapon. Iran probably counts on the threat of cutting off oil exports to stay our hand. So with that in mind, I'd want to prepare for the complete loss of Iranian oil exports for the time needed to take down Iran. My question is, have we been doing exactly this for the last couple years or so?
Consider that despite high prices that are supposedly the result of insufficient supply to meet demand that our total oil stocks are at a 8-year high. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and private stockpiles in the United States have about 118 days of oil imports. By international agreement, signatories are supposed to have 90 days of imports on hand, so other leading countries should have similar reserves.
Well, perhaps I wasn't speculating so wildly (via Winds of Change):
An impressive number of offensive and defensive weapons are also deployed in the region. For instance, since March ,Gulf refineries and vital oil installations are protected by batteries of Patriot missiles. Furthermore, according to the Kuwaiti daily Al Seyassah, the US has built a massive stock of oil and could ask the temporary stop of Gulf refineries in order to prevent heavy damage in case of an Iranian attack.
Missiles to defend the oil facilities and, more to the point, we've built up "a massive stock of oil" for a crisis.
Could be soon, eh?
