Airstrikes Over Libya Because of Oil from Planck's Constant

The Main Reason for International
Involvement in Libya
Photo Credit: Cartoon Movement

Why is it that whenever we, and by we I mean the western world, whenever we bomb Muslims, someone always finds a way to blame the attacks on our desire to control that country's oil wealth.

Take the instant case of Libya. When US, French, and British forces hit Libya's air-defenses in order to enforce a ceasefire and no-fly zone, some African leaders protested:

BBC, Libya: Museveni, Mugabe and Zuma condemn air strikes
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a long-standing critic of the West, has also condemned the air strikes, saying the conflict is really about control of Libya's oil wealth.

This is about as stupid as saying we went to Iraq for their oil when in fact we now know that No American Oil Company Benefited From the War in Iraq.

Here's why it doesn't make sense: if you look at the table below, you will note that Libyan oil production is currently 1.79 million barrels per day. But according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates ¹ we can get as much as 1.45 million barrels a day simply by opening up ANWR in Alaska. We don't need to bomb anyone, we don't need to get any stinkin' UN resolutions, and we don't need to send Hillary Clinton anywhere to explain why we're doing the bombing.

All of Libya barely has a little more oil than a small corner of Alaska. The US doesn't need to leave the country to get oil, we have all we need in our own backyard.

But now that we are in Africa, I expect to hear liberal idiots and Muslim apologists claiming that we are not just after Libya's oil but all the oil in Africa. But how much oil does Africa produce? Would it surprise you to learn that all 56 African countries combined barely produce 10% more oil than the US does alone? We would have to invade all of Africa to get the same oil we can simply buy from Russia and Saudi Arabia - so why would we need to invade a country, spend billions in military expenditures when we can simply send a check?

Take a look at this graph to see oil production by country. You will note that Canada produces almost twice as much oil as Libya. If all we are indeed after is oil then we should be bombing Canada; hell, the way they grovel in front of Muslims, the Canadian government would probably surrender to us after a single strafing of Montreal. I say this with no disrespect to the many fine Canadians who have the courage to stand against Muslim tyranny.

Legend

African Country

Non-African Country

Rank	Country	Daily Oil Production in Barrels/Day
1	Russia	10,120,000
2	Saudi Arabia	9,764,000
3	USA	9,056,000
4	Iran	4,172,000
5	China	3,991,000
6	Canada	3,289,000
7	Mexico	3,001,000
8	United Arab Emirates	2,798,000
9	Brazil	2,572,000
10	Kuwait	2,494,000
11	Venezuela	2,472,000
12	Iraq	2,399,000
13	Norway	2,350,000
14	Nigeria	2,211,000
15	Algeria	2,125,000
16	Angola	1,948,000
17	Libya	1,790,000
18	Kazakhstan	1,540,000
19	United Kingdom	1,502,000
20	Qatar	1,213,000
21	Indonesia	1,023,000
22	Azerbaijan	1,011,000
23	India	878,700
24	Oman	816,000
25	Argentina	796,300
26	Colombia	785,000
27	Malaysia	693,700
28	Egypt	680,500
29	Australia	589,200
30	Sudan	486,700
31	Ecuador	485,700
32	Syria	400,400
33	Thailand	380,000
34	Equatorial Guinea	346,000
35	Vietnam	300,600
36	Yemen	288,400
37	Taiwan	276,800
38	Congo	274,400
39	Denmark	262,100
40	Gabon	241,700
41	Turkmenistan	197,700
42	South Africa	191,000
43	Peru	157,200
44	Germany	156,800
45	Trinidad and Tobago	151,600
46	Italy	146,500
47	Brunei	146,000
48	Japan	132,700
49	Romania	117,000
50	Chad	115,000
51	Ukraine	99,930
52	East Timor	96,270
53	Tunisia	91,380
54	Cameroon	77,310
55	Uzbekistan	70,910
56	France	70,820
57	New Zealand	61,150
58	Pakistan	59,140
59	Cote d'Ivoire	58,950
60	Netherlands	57,190
61	Turkey	52,980
62	Bahrain	48,560
63	Cuba	48,340
64	Korea, South	48,180
65	Bolivia	43,740
66	Uruguay	40,110
67	Papua New Guinea	35,090
68	Poland	34,140
69	Belarus	31,400
70	Spain	27,230
71	Croatia	23,960
72	Austria	21,880
73	Hungary	21,430
74	Burma	18,880
75	Virgin Islands	16,870
76	Mauritania	16,510
77	Congo DR	16,360
78	Suriname	15,190
79	Guatemala	13,530
80	Serbia	11,400
81	Belgium	11,220
82	Czech Republic	10,970
83	Singapore	10,910
84	Chile	10,850
85	Philippines	9,671
86	Finland	8,718
87	Estonia	7,600
88	Ghana	7,081
89	Greece	6,779
90	Lithuania	6,333
91	Mongolia	5,975
92	Bangladesh	5,733
93	Albania	5,400
94	Sweden	4,833
95	Portugal	4,721
96	Slovakia	4,114
97	Morocco	4,053
98	Belize	3,990
99	Israel	3,806
100	Switzerland	3,488
101	Bulgaria	3,227
102	Aruba	2,235
103	Puerto Rico	1,783
104	Georgia	995
105	Kyrgyzstan	979
106	Barbados	765
107	Tajikistan	221
108	Zambia	160
109	Korea, North	118
110	Somalia	108
111	Paraguay	31
112	Sierra Leone	29
113	Slovenia	5

Source: I created this table from data taken from the CIA World Factbook.

Graphic at top of page is by Palestinian cartoonist Mohammed Abdul Ghani Saba'neh.

Notes

(1):

US News and World Report, 23 May 2008, Arctic Drilling Wouldn't Cool High Oil Prices
So EIA assumed little change—and in fact, a slight decline—in ANWR's productive capacity since 2000, when it projected that the production in the refuge could reach 650,000 to 1.9 million barrels per day. In the new analysis, EIA says that production could range from 510,000 barrels to 1.45 million barrels per day.