In the 1990s the US continued the interest in Mid East oil that first came to the national consciousness a generation ago during the first Arab Oil Crisis. I remember those days well, as gasoline prices more than doubled to reach $1.00 per gallon. Even as a young man, I had a rather grumpy view toward pan-Arab nationalism and thought it strange that our country would force the Israelis to give up control of the oil producing regions and routes they had seized. Instead of supporting the Israelis and buying oil from them, we made nice with the various Sheiks whose governements were unquestionably corrupt in our view. After all, does our behaviour reveal that we really care who we buy the oil from? We have made deals with the Sheiks, with the Russians, and others with whom we have no particular affinity. In the 1990s our energy executives including Vice President (then an extraordinary citizen) Cheney were working on a deal with the Afghanis in regard to putting a pipeline through Afghanistan so that we could receive Caspian Sea oil without having to deal with the Russians. Yes, we were willing to deal with the hated Taliban and at that time viewed them favorably because the Afghanis had withstood the Russian onslought. A map, produced in 1998 shows why politics makes such strange bed fellows for us in the Mid East. You may view it at the following websites. http://mondediplo.com/maps/ http://mondediplo.com/maps/oilmdv1998 Early this year the much-maligned CIA had informed our government of the advances North Korea had made in nuclear technology and the possibility that nuclear bombs had already been created. Since the administration had the information about Korea's nuclear program at the same time it had the information about Iraq, why would attention be concentrated on Iraq, the weaker of the two, rather than on Korea? The oil route maps makes our actions graphically clear and shows why we we choose to risk Iraq War II rather than the Second Korean War. Charles Scott _________________________________________________________________ Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp