Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower

[robertpaulsen]

Portrait of an Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
How Rising Oil Prices Are Obliterating America’s Superpower Status

by Michael T. Klare

Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world’s other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe.

Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel crude oil roared past $110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4.00. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the USA will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation’s economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making.

That the fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the erasure of the Soviet Union’s superpower status was obvious to international observers at the time. After all, the USSR visibly ceased to exercise dominion over an empire (and an associated military-industrial complex) encompassing nearly half of Europe and much of Central Asia. The relationship between rising oil prices and the obliteration of America’s superpower status is, however, hardly as self-evident. So let’s consider the connection.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/09/8832/

[Fovea]

1. I hope for a sea change.

I believe that we can back away from the crack pipe.

But on the other side of the needed changes, America and indeed the world looks different.

[IrateCitizen]

2. I sincerely doubt it

America will never give up its oil addiction willingly, because America as it currently is is built on oil addiction.

[kristopher]

3. "when a barrel crude oil roared past $110 on the international market"

Looks to me that there has been an intervention and we've been put on a diet...