By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
Since October, the United States has been bombing ISIS oil fields.
This was a significant change in policy - until then, oil was not touched. The thinking was that oil would be an important and immediate cash source for any new government that would be replacing ISIS.
But as of October the US changed plans, now thinking that the cash profits ISIS was getting from the oil was helping fund and run their militant, terrorist state. The United States also, finally, understood that and ISIS was not teetering or toppling.
The shocker is that this huge change in policy, a change that is intended to strangle ISIS monetarily, has to date only involved 65 strikes. The strikes have reduced ISIS oil production by only 30% - from 45,000 barrels per day to 34,000 barrels per day.
In real figures this would be a drop from $1,575,000 per day to $1,190,000 per day at market prices. The only redeeming part of all this is that ISIS is selling their oil at significantly below market price, selling at between $20 to $25 per barrel. That still means that they are making $850,000 a day on oil.
This is just another example of how the United States is only half heartedly confronting ISIS. If they want to strangle ISIS and remove their oil profits, it will
require more than 65 strikes and more than a 30% reduction in oil production.
The United States is reluctant to do more. That reluctance permits ISIS to run their state and fund their fighters. The United States must decide what they really want to do vis a vis ISIS, and then go after it.
But maybe, this is what the US really wants. Many words, little action.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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