In the GR Ford Presidential Museum hangs this interesting piece from New York magazine. In it President Ford is shown storming the beaches alongside Henry Kissinger with US troops and oil rigs in the background. The headline reads, Would We Really Kill for Oil?

It would not be out of place to see something similar in most modern magazines or websites, regardless of who our leadership is and should serve as a reminder that what is old usually becomes new again.

In this case the illustration above is referencing our involvement with the Middle East, an area of the world that just happened to have very large oil deposits that are necessary to run the engines of the world economy. That oil has tied us (the world) to this region and has made it a focal point of our foreign policy for a very long time. National interest has dragged us into a number of wars, questionable alliances and quite frankly a continuation of the Crusades from which Western Civilization may very well not be able to survive.

Back under the Ford the question was, “Would We Kill For Oil?” Forty years later we know the answer to that question is still being debated. The irony is that in the last decade oil reserves that dwarf those in Iran and Iraq have been found much closer to home which should mean the answer is a resounding no.

Alas, we have embroiled ourselves so deep in that region that we may never be able to get untangled. Luckily though Ford and Kissinger never had to storm that beach as depicted in the magazine, which was good, but perhaps if they had we would be asking a different question now.