Reply #91: Bush's legacy at the gas pump [View All]

[54anickel]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0509/p08s02-comv.html

snip>

"Nothing has really taken me aback more, as secretary of State, than the way the politics of energy is ... warping diplomacy around the world," Condoleezza Rice told a Senate panel recently.
:eyes: Sheesh Condi, get real, don't act so freakin' surprised! Our government has been taken over by "oil barrons" - :wtf: did you expect?

That diplomatic scramble was on full display last week during a trip to oil-rich Central Asia by Dick Cheney. Not only did the American vice president use his travels to criticize Russia for using its energy exports as "tools of intimidation and blackmail," he embraced the authoritarian ruler of Kazakhstan. Mr. Cheney was seeking ways for the oil of that Central Asian giant to bypass the clutches of the Kremlin. His trip comes just months after a similar tour to the region by Ms. Rice.

Greater Central Asia has become a front line of oil geopolitics over ensuring stable supplies. Last month, Mr. Bush played host to the president of Azerbaijan. And in the past few years, Russia and China have corralled countries in the region into an alliance known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. That grouping appears increasingly anti-Washington - Iran may be invited to join the group next month.

Cheney's trip was mainly a defensive move, like a queen on a chessboard, in a 21st-century version of the old "great game" of big powers vying to control the heart of Eurasia.

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