A lot of oil comes from the middle east. Having a strong ally opens up options for interaction with countries there. I'd say most of the progress in the 20th ce

A lot of oil comes from the middle east. Having a strong ally opens up options for interaction with countries there. I'd say most of the progress in the 20th century came from access to inexpensive energy. Now that we're in the information age we're more concerned with efficiency and effective use of scarce resources. Cheap energy is a big boost though. Transportation costs are an obvious example. But oil is used in everything. Fertilizer and plastics are big consumers. Keeping those costs down, makes everything cheaper. Theoretically, that's better for everyone. Cheap energy was important enough for the us to go to war at least once, Desert Storm. Good arguments can be made for the second Iraq invasion, and the possibility of oil off the coast of Vietnam. This of course glosses over all of the secondary effects, like CO2 emissions, health consequences of fast food and all the problems that go along with war. (And i'm sure a million other things!) But, yeah, the reason is access to cheap energy.