g, he has not gone away. He stillholds a “carrot” over the U.S. and it is oil. This time, theU.S. held off that fight, and protected Saudi oil fields byextending the no-fly zone to southern Iraq. Oil pricesstayed steady.Just as during the energy crisis of the 1970s, duringthe Gulf war there was a great deal of discussion about thedanger of America’s dependence on foreign oil. Once again,as soon as the perceived threat seemed to vanish, in thiscase, Saddam Hussein, the fear once again went away.According to Heilbrunner (1996), “But the fundamentalproblem has not. For an administration obsessed withgeoeconomics, it is startling that the Clintonites havedevoted almost no attention to the rise in American oilimports. Instead, they have rolled over as the RepublicanCongress has slashed funding for energy research”(Heilbrunner, 1996, p. 4) . America's dependence on Mideast oil is frightening.According to Heilbrunner,” U.S. demand in the coming yearsis expected to exceed demand as in the 1970s, when the U.S.suffered twin oil shocks. At the same time, U.S. productionis shrinking yearly: onshore production of crude oil willdecrease at an annual rate of 1.7 percent through 2015,according to the Energy Information Administration, theindependent statistical agency within the Department ofEnergy” (Heilbrunner, 1996, p. 4). Many people who live and die by the free market, don’tsee this as a problem. They say that the market will adjustitself to any swings in demand. Their assumption is thatpeople will cut back when prices go up. This in turn, willdrive prices back down again. Although prices went as high as $40 a barrel afterSaddam overran Kuwait, “they soon stabilized as the Saudisstepped up production. But this was just good luck. HadSaddam immediately moved into Saudi Arabia instead ofwaiting in Kuwait, his 100,000-strong army could have seizedSaudi oil fields located less than 200 miles from ...
