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Considering just how much US military presence is in the Middle East primarily for protecting energy assets, I think it is useful. It's disproportionate to the

• ailideex 7y ago
  How much of the oil used in US comes from middle east?
  • Robotbeat 7y ago
    That's the crazy thing. Nowadays, it's not even very much (on the order of $30 billion in oil per year, much of which is refined and re-exported as gasoline, etc), but we have massive military investments in military bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Djibouti, etc. There's no way this passes the cost vs benefit sniff test. Unlike the mid-aughts, the US is very nearly a net exporter of oil and oil products: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttntus2&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=m...
    • FrojoS 7y ago
      What matters is mostly the global price.
  • gameswithgo 7y ago
    It doesn't matter how much physically comes from there to here, it matters how much their production brings down the price of the global commodity.
    • Robotbeat 7y ago
      Well, that's the key point about becoming a net exporter of oil, isn't it? If the global price of oil shoots up, the extra cost to consumers is easily offset by the increased revenue for domestic oil production. If that's not good enough for you, there's also the option of protectionist measures to keep the price of oil for consumers nearer what it was originally (which is less economically efficient but is no worse than where you were at first). That's the main argument for being "energy independent."