WPR's The New Rules: For U.S., Abandoning the Middle East not a Solution

Monday, May 9, 2011 at 1:05PM
Thomas P.M. Barnett in China, Middle East, US foreign policy, WPR Column, energy, food

America's successful assassination of Osama bin Laden, long overdue, naturally renews talk across the country about ending the nation's military involvement in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Coupled with the ongoing tumult unleashed by the Arab Spring, Washington is once again being encouraged to reconsider its strategic relationship with the troubled Middle East. The underlying current to this debate has always been the widely held perception that America's "oil addiction" tethers it to the unstable region. Achieve "energy independence," we are told, and America would free itself of this terrible burden.

Read the entire column at World Politics Review.

Article originally appeared on Thomas P.M. Barnett (https://thomaspmbarnett.com/).