Excerpt:
The U.S. currently uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day, about 6 million of which is produced domestically. But that domestic production is declining as older fields dry up. So adding ANWR oil won’t bring an increase in U.S. oil production, it will barely make up for the lost production from declining fields. Nor will it make up for the increased demand of another 1.5 million barrels a day by 2013 — unless we figure out a way to conserve a lot more oil.
[snip]

By John W. Schoen
MSNBC
May 2006
Read the original here.

Excerpts:
A day after chastising Moscow for its use of oil and natural gas as "tools for intimidation and blackmail," Vice President Dick Cheney visited Kazakhstan on Friday to promote export routes that bypass Russia and directly supply the West.
[snip]

In Russia, reaction to Mr. Cheney's speech on Thursday was sharp. Kommersant, a major daily, called it "the beginning of a second cold war," this time in a struggle over energy and competing spheres of influence rather than ideology.
[snip]

"Cheney, Visiting Kazakhstan, Wades Into Energy Battle"
by Ilan Greenberg and Andrew E. Kramer
New York Times
May 6, 2006
Read the original here.

Excerpt:
Since the United States has the world's largest military, the militarization of police work justifies the "persistent surveillance" of, well, everything and everybody, as well as the maintenance of "a long-term, low-visibility presence in many areas of the world where U.S. forces do not traditionally operate." It justifies taking "preventive measures" in order to "quell disorder before it leads to the collapse of political and social structures" and shaping "the choices of countries at strategic crossroads" which, the Quadrennial Defense Review believes, include Russia, China, India, the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia -- just about every nation on the face of the earth save Britain and, maybe, France.

Since the "new threats of the 21st century recognize no borders," the Pentagon can, in the name of efficiency and flexibility, breach bureaucratic divisions separating police, military, and intelligence agencies, while at the same time demanding that they be subordinated to U.S. command. Hawks now like to sell the War on Terror as "the Long War," but a better term would be ‘the Wide War," with an enemies list infinitely expandable to include everything from DVD bootleggers to peasants protesting the Bechtel Corporation. Southcom Commander Craddock regularly preaches against "anti-globalization and anti-free trade demagogues," while Harvard security-studies scholar and leading ideologue of the "protean enemy" thesis, Jessica Stern, charges, without a shred of credible evidence, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is brokering an alliance between "Colombian rebels and militant Islamist groups."
[snip]

In Latin America more generally, it is increasingly the Pentagon, not the State Department, which sets the course for hemispheric diplomacy. With a staff of 1,400 and a budget of $800 million, Southcom already has more money and resources devoted to Latin America than do the Departments of State, Treasury, Commerce, and Agriculture combined. And its power is growing.
[snip]

"The Wide War"
by Greg Grandin
May 7, 2006
Read the original here.