There is a lot of high quality discourse on this thread which takes the general view towards Jihadists that they are dupes who have been "radicalised" by self-seeking leaders who are exploiting the weak. But ... what if Jihadism and radical Islam represent intelligent, principled men with sincerely held beliefs that are grounded in a moral philosophy that can withstand reasoned, intelligent argument. Maybe the Glasgow airport bombers (who were physicians) provide some substance to this theory. If this turns out to be a robust ideology that meets the spiritual and material aspirations of substantial numbers of people, including many who are intelligent and "rational", then you have a much bigger problem to solve.
It's never about oil. There has never been a shortage of reserves and never will be. There have been incidents where under investment in exploration and production has led to over dependence on too few suppliers (the 1960s and 1970s saw this) but the market solves that. Since the 1980s the world has been awash with oil. The long run history of oil will be written up as over supply. Western desire for oil can be satisfied much easier elsewhere. Western adventures in the Middle East are powered by ideological factors.
© 2026 All Rights Reserved
There is a lot of high quality discourse on this thread which takes the general view towards Jihadists that they are dupes who have been "radicalised" by self-seeking leaders who are exploiting the weak. But ... what if Jihadism and radical Islam represent intelligent, principled men with sincerely held beliefs that are grounded in a moral philosophy that can withstand reasoned, intelligent argument. Maybe the Glasgow airport bombers (who were physicians) provide some substance to this theory. If this turns out to be a robust ideology that meets the spiritual and material aspirations of substantial numbers of people, including many who are intelligent and "rational", then you have a much bigger problem to solve.
It's never about oil. There has never been a shortage of reserves and never will be. There have been incidents where under investment in exploration and production has led to over dependence on too few suppliers (the 1960s and 1970s saw this) but the market solves that. Since the 1980s the world has been awash with oil. The long run history of oil will be written up as over supply. Western desire for oil can be satisfied much easier elsewhere. Western adventures in the Middle East are powered by ideological factors.