To Olbermann, Please be fair.

A few thoughts after watching what might be an unfair characterization of Mccain’s Iraq/Oil remark that by Olbermann

Here is the quote as shown on Huffington Post

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will – that will then prevent us – that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

Lets be frank here,America and the middles eastern oil dependent economies of the world are tied to the middle east because of the oil. Mccain was simply stating the truth.

Now, there are two ways to understand what Mccain is actually implying.

1, The cynical interpretation, Americans are in Iraq to force the Iraqis to give us their oil at a cost lower than it would have been without an invasion.

2, The pragmatic interpretation, America and the middles eastern oil dependent economies therefore has to intervene (militarily if needed) to prevent the region from sliding into chaos.

If I have to justify what Mccain has said, I would argue with the second point and elaborate by suggesting the possibility that if one day America no longer needs middle eastern oil, than it would cost American less to let that regions problem solve it selfs, without American intervention. Which is properly its current attitude towards non-resource/strategically unimportant regions, Darfur, Myanmar, Tibet, etc.

Iraq unlike Vietnam is a conflict of identity

Military strategist Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations explain how Iraq is a conflict of identity unlike Vietnam which was an ideological conflict. He further argue it is precisely this difference that has caused the initial Iraq strategy to fail and the current surge strategy to be more effective in reducing violence. His analysis is the best I have read on military strategy in Iraq so far. Having said that without political settlement (over land and oil) and trust building between the three Iraqi factions peace will be hard to perpetuate.

This interviw is a part of the Conversation with History series.

I hope Obama, Hillary and McCain all know the issues discussed in this interview.