Terrorism and Middle East oil

American foreign policy in the Middle East is allegedly motivated by oil interests. Why? It is well-known that in line with the high standard of living, the U.S. is the biggest oil consumer in the world, taking about a quarter of the world's oil, while it has just five percent of the world's population. Since 1970, U.S. oil consumption has constantly surpassed its production, and the gap is widening steadily, making it more heavily dependent on imports.

From the available data, most of the imported oil comes from the Middle East particularly from Saudi Arabia, beside Canada, Mexico and Venezuela who are also big suppliers. Some oil experts predict that world production of crude oil will begin declining in the first decade of this century outside the Middle East and in the second decade in the Middle East.

Understandably, the Middle East remains vital to the U.S., not only for the present but also for the future. Due to its vital nature, policymakers in the U.S. will presumably do whatever possible to get cheap oil from that region. The reasons for invading Iraq -- the "weapons of mass destruction", elimination of tyranny and fighting the spread of terrorism by Saddam Hussein, which are now proven to be unfounded, allegedly cover up for the real reason -- oil interests -- because Iraq has one of the biggest oil reserves next to Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. policy in consistently supporting Israel to suppress the Palestinians, while most of the world including the UN oppose the Israeli regime, in my opinion can hardly be separated from the efforts to destabilize the Arab nations in that area, with the objective of constantly undermining their bargaining power. This kind of policy has angered the Arab people, but their option to resist is only by subversive actions -- attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- acts that are now called "terrorism".

It is understandable that of course, those most affected by the U.S. policy are the Arab people, and this is evidenced by the actions of Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian. A lot of other groups who have ethnic, racial, or religious connections have sympathy with the oppressed Arab people, as evidenced by the Bali and Marriott Hotel bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003 among others.

It is therefore very difficult or probably impossible to stamp out this particular type of "terrorism" if we do not stop the root of the cause, even if most nations in the world have declared wars on terror. America's foreign policy supporting Israel must be changed along with its oil-based policy in the Middle East, if we want to really eliminate and prevent the spread of terrorism.

N. SUSETYO SUTADJI Jakarta