Article

2011-02-20 Africa North

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2011-02-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 Unrest has spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Djibouti, presenting the United States with the dilemma of maintaining stability in the oil-rich region while upholding the right to demonstrate for democratic change.

The U.S. will immediately push energy independecne from the Mideast because it is unstable. We will start drilling for oil in the U.S. immediately. The Gulf of Mexico will again begin operations. Oil exploration will expand. We will fast track new nuclear power plants. Other sources of energy such as natural gas will be pushed. The EPA and other regulatory agencies will relax restrictions immediately.

I'm sorry, I was having a moment of reverie. What the hell was I thinking.

Posted by JohnQC 2011-02-20 08:36|| 2011-02-20 08:36|| Front Page Top

#2 Thank you JQC for coming to your senses. Otherwise I would have realized that I'd been transported to the Twilight Zone.

Posted by Alan Cramer 2011-02-20 08:56|| 2011-02-20 08:56|| Front Page Top

#3 My forecast: regardless of who becomes king of the mountain in each country, there will be a lot of unrest, and things will never be the same, govtwise in those countries undergoing upheaval.

O will remain a bystander and events will carry him along. He will make no decisive actions, but will talk-talk-talk. He has been effectively neutered w/r/t foreign affairs, and will authorize any military action if he can help it. We still have a big stick, but nothing running it.

Crude oil prices will be steadily climbing as the situation in the ME becomes more unstable. Our allies do not trust us to come to their aid. The piracy business model is working really well, and there is no leadership to smack down this irritating nest of hornets.

When the price of gasoline and diesel becomes really painful to consumers, they will howl to the congress, who will yield to pressure after "frank exchanges" of sorts with constituents, and after some ugly fermenting time, the drilling will start back up, coal will not be quite the boogeyman that O admin sez it is. However, the path of getting to energy independence will be very frustrating and painful. The enviro-nazis will fight any change that is proposed.

O will be a backwater figure. I do not think that he will resign, his narcissism will not let him do that.

But depending how the unrest goes, it could get to be a real crisis with our petroleum energy supply. We have painted ourselves in a real corner, and all this gearing up for drilling, extracting, and transporting crude does not happen overnight.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-02-20 13:44|| 2011-02-20 13:44|| Front Page Top

#4 correction: will NOT authorize any military actions if he can help it.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-02-20 13:45|| 2011-02-20 13:45|| Front Page Top

#5 AP - that kinda talk will get you sent to Janet Incompetano's reeducation camps

Posted by Frank G 2011-02-20 13:57|| 2011-02-20 13:57|| Front Page Top

#6 See ya there, Commodore, heh. We will talk, if we can.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-02-20 16:54|| 2011-02-20 16:54|| Front Page Top

#7 let's work on a code now, before they come for us?

Posted by Frank G 2011-02-20 17:03|| 2011-02-20 17:03|| Front Page Top

#8 let's work on a code now, before they come for us?

Humph. If two engineers can't work out a code completely unintelligible to outsiders on the fly, it can't be done. And if they don't derive unholy glee from the doing of it... well they will, that's all. ;-) Shortly after which, I have sublime faith, all the exterior walls and watch towers will spontaneously fall down.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-02-20 20:02|| 2011-02-20 20:02|| Front Page Top

#9 Morse will be good enough. It's no longer a government approved standard.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2011-02-20 20:28|| 2011-02-20 20:28|| Front Page Top

#10 Libyan death toll from Army-Protester clashes + related "incidents" is up to 180-200 this Guam AM.

TOPIX ARTICS = belabel LIBYA'S "JASMINE" PROTESTERS as committing SELF "SUICIDE-BY-ARMY"?

IIUC, thus proving that they as a Class have SERIOUS PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS HENCE ARE INCAPABLE OF SELF-GOVERNING HENCE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE THE QADDAFI REGIME???

* TOPIX > [The "Arab Planning Insitute" = Kuwaiti think-tank]NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED IN ARAB WORLD WILL RISE TO 19.0MILYUHN IN 2020.

Muslim Youth, espec Muslim Teen Girlz.

* SAME > [Jasmine] REVOLUTION FEVER SPREADS ACROSS THE ARAB WORLD.

* WAFF > {YouTube] ISLAMIC REGIME WILL COLLAPSE IN IRAN.

versus

TOPIX > EXPERTS: IRAN OPPOSITION HAS FAILED TO FOMENT/IGNITE JASMINE REVOLUTION.

Thus far - it has a ways to go yet.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-02-20 22:14|| 2011-02-20 22:14|| Front Page Top

#11 Muslim Youth, espec Muslim Teen Girlz.

That's ok as far as the girls go, JosephM. They're for marrying off anyway. :-( But the boys foment revolution or become jihadis, which does matter.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-02-20 23:21|| 2011-02-20 23:21|| Front Page Top

23:59 OldSpook
23:21 trailing wife
23:12 JosephMendiola
22:55 Frank G
22:51 Alaska Paul
22:44 CrazyFool
22:38 Alaska Paul
22:35 JosephMendiola
22:25 JosephMendiola
22:14 JosephMendiola
21:53 JosephMendiola
21:51 JosephMendiola
21:48 Bugs Ulaiter7311
21:45 JosephMendiola
21:40 Pappy
21:39 JosephMendiola
21:38 Pappy
21:34 Pappy
21:26 JosephMendiola
21:26 tu3031
21:17 JosephMendiola
21:17 trailing wife
21:14 trailing wife
21:14 eLarson