The Greek patient - What's really at stake?

It is at this point that I want to pick up a thread which was laid down in the sixth post in this series: the gas pipelines I referred to.

At the heart of the Greek problem is a rather down-to-earth fact: natural resources. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Let's face it: America is a resource junkie. Americans represent 5% of the world's population, but they consume 25% of its natural resources, in particular its energy resources. The Americans aren't all that hip on renewable energies (cf. the Keystone pipeline, fracking, and more) but we all know that in the interest of the environment (which also doesn't make much of an impression on Americans either) there have to be other ways of conducting our (production) business. Finally, we also know that capitalism, as it is currently practiced in the US is unsustainable. Infinite growth on a finite planet is, well, simply impossible. But the impossible never stopped America. There was a time when that might have been a good thing, but in this case, it could be the end of us all.

As it turns out, Greece is sitting on more than significant quantities of much-desired natural resources. Nobody ever bothered figuring this out, for as we saw in our review of Greek history, the occupiers were more interested in getting what they could while they could get it that the search and extraction of – granted, at the time, unknown – resources was not their highest priority. We all know, though, that America's, if not the world's, greatest addiction, is to hydrocarbons. And it is here that our Greek patient becomes downright sexy.

As fate would have it, Greece is sitting on the currently largest natural gas reserves in the world. It's not like this wasn't known before. The Germans, during WW2, obtained most of their oil from Rumania, but they were drilling in Greece as well. When you look at the whole region – from Rumania in the North, to the Caspian Sea in the Northeast, to Iran, Syria and all the way down to Libya, it stands to reason that hydrocarbons should be present in and around Greece. As it turns out, the Americans have known this for a long time.

A short digression back into history:

One of the first things the Americans did after "allowing" the military junta to take over Greece was to since contracts to explore for gas and oil. These contracts were for a period of 26 years with an option for an additional 10 years. When you add it up: 1968 + 26 + 10 = 2004, oddly enough, the year that turmoil started in Greece as we have seen. Between 1968 and 2004, oil was cheap. The Saudis had agreed back then that they could live with $40/barrel, but in 2004, oil prices began to rise drastically, as high as $140/barrel. Suddenly, Saudi oil wasn't as attractive as it once was and to a junkie, well, when you have to start paying more for the same fix, you start looking for other sources.

You can say what you want, but given the fact that it has been more than proven that Bush and Blair overtly and specifically lied to start the Iraq War, the object was oil, not freedom. Our beef with Iran isn't really over their nuclear program, for the observant reader will have noted that the Americans attempts to get in good with Turkmenistan is an attempt to outflank Iran to the North ... they are sitting on huge gas and oil reserves, too.

No, if you ask me, the jig is up. We're not dealing with anything more than a grab for resources just like we had back in the 19th century. The more things change, the more they stay the same.