...Washington would “protect” the world’s natural resources, not necessarily for American consumption but to give the US military a franchise for flexing its muscle.

“The power to protect by its nature is the power to threaten,” as the American analyst Michael Lind puts it in his masterful book, The American Way of Strategy.

Thus the US, which relies on the Gulf for less than a third of its oil supplies – the sham of US “dependence” on Middle East oil is a straw man for politicians in need of Saudi-bashing – gladly assumes the exclusive burden of protecting its sea lanes and waterways...LINK