Why You Should Worry About Iran

I did a search for a map of Middle East oil fields and came up with this one, which isn't perfect but will make my point.

It's the oil, stupid. See all those purple and blue blobs on that map? That's it. Ignore the national boundaries. See how all the oil is concentrated into a strip that's about 800 miles long by 200 miles wide?

Now, imagine that you have military dominance over that strip. Go on--it's not hard to do. Saddam Hussein was able to imagine it, and he knew just where to position his troops to make it a reality. The result was the Gulf War. Do you honestly think the Iranians can't imagine it?

Look, folks. It's a sad thing that all that oil is so necessary for the operation of an advanced technological civilization. It's an even sadder thing that its so concentrated, with such limited logistical access, with so many crazies sitting on top of it. (No doubt the crazies are crazy because they are sitting on top of it.) But there you have it.

No power that might deny that oil to the world market can be allowed to control it. Period. If Iran gets a nuke, there'd better be a US or NATO presence in the gulf. And, if Iran decides to flex its muscles, we'll have to flex back. Nukes or no nukes.