Trust No One.

Mulder was right.

Except we aren't battling aliens hidden among us, we're watching as a high stakes global chess match unfolds over access to energy supplies. Because oil in the ground you can count on = money in the bank = a future for your country.

Ponder the following:

1.) The US has stepped in to 'liberate' first Kuwait, then Iraq, at the same time defending it's friends in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, U.A.E. (Forget what you read in the papers about Saudi Arabia, it's all bullshit. We scratch their backs, they scratch ours. The frictions you read about in the paper are play acting to keep the Muslim world pacified.) Oh, and that surprise deal with Libya? Let's just say that Occidental Petroleum and a few other US firms were really happy to hear about that. If you sit down and ponder this, you realize we just locked down as 'friendlies' a huge portion of the world's oil supplies. [When I say 'friendlies', I ain't saying they're going to sell to us cheap. But they'll sell to us, and they're not going to cut us off again, which at this point would be devastating.]

2.) The war on terrorism conveniently allows the US to park it's forces all around the globe: the Middle East, Africa, South America, the Caspian Sea area. Oh, and by the way, a lot of oil is nearby each one of those.

3.) China is increasingly scouring the globe for energy (in Venezuela, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, the South China sea) as it dawns on them that they are building a huge infrastructure for which they have neglected to ensure long term, reliable sources of energy. This will bring it into conflict with the US and Japan, maybe Canada and Europe.

4.) The Russians, recovering after their long and serious malaise, catch on to peak oil and defacto publicly behead one of their own major corporations (OAO Yukos) as a warning to other corporations and the world that they will do whatever it takes to retain control of their energy supplies. OAO Yukos was on the verge of a major deal with ExxonMobil, but this is now too valuable a resource to sell at current prices.

5) Iran works on developing nuclear power. Ever ask yourself why a country with rich oil and gas reserves needs nuclear power? Because oil and gas will be worth a lot more on the world's markets.