Whose Buying?

While there is a large contingent who despise such activity, I have always enjoyed respectful political discussion at the many local watering holes I frequent.  A recent topic engaged upon with one of my favorite participants is why, if we are indeed at war with the evil terrorist group ISIS, why has the Obama administration not thoroughly dismantled their main sourcing of finance; oil.

Furthermore, who are the buyers of this oil, and what are their motivations behind helping to finance this evil band of terrorists?   Curious George deemed this subject worthy of putting pen to pad, so therefore, BAHL'S Blog welcomes our third guest on this timely subject from Curious George:

    Are we at war with ISIS or not? This seems to be the question that The President, Congress and the press are bantering about as events play out in Iraq and Syria. Just for the sake of argument let's say that we are. This makes sense since we are dropping bombs on and shooting missiles at our enemies over there. Also let me say at the outset that I support these moves and whatever other military action we feel we need to take over there to defeat ISIS.

    Based on that premise let's take a look at the last war that we can arguably say we won, World War II. During that war, and the one before, we came to be introduced to what is arguably the age old concept of interdiction. No interdiction is not a term coined by the DEA during the war on drugs. In war, this is the concept of seizing or destroying your enemy's ability to rearm, re-enforce and resupply. This includes interdicting their commerce, their ability to sell goods to others to make money. This significantly effects their ability to replace their losses and to make war. In WWII, the allies bombed axis factories and attacked their shipping. Right after the disastrous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Secretary of the Navy issued issued a very short and direct order by radio to all US. Navy submarines operating in the Pacific. "Conduct unrestricted submarine warfare on Japan." This meant that any vessel flying the Japanese flag was a target. This order, and the effort that followed by our subs, came at our lowest point in the war. It was none the less very effective in greatly reducing the Japanese ability to make war and was a major factor in the eventual allied victory.

    Although I served in the military, I am far from an expert on warfare or for that matter, economics. But in light of all that I have seen, heard, and read; it would seem to me that the way to defeat an enemy in war is to 1) Kill them and root them from the ground they hold, and 2) as a second axis of war, interdict their resupply and commerce. In the past, these terror organizations finance infrastructure was underground and had o be investigated and rooted out. This is true of the terror state ISIS with regard to some of their financing activities. But with regard to the selling of "black market oil" we know what oil fields ISIS holds and we know that they are selling at rock bottom prices to folks who are close enough to send tank trucks to get it. Supposedly, from there, it "MAY" be going to refineries in Iran, Turkey, and to small refineries run by ordinary individuals. In addition, it has been rumored in the press that some of our EU allies have also admitted to buying ISIS black market oil. It should be noted that Turkey is also a NATO "ally", and examples of such activity have been presented in a piece at (The Daily Star, July 26th, 2014 article by Mazin Sidhmed, and an in a piece at Zerohedge.com by Tyler Dudren on 9/15/2014). It should be noted that Turkey has denied any involvement in ISIS oil smuggling operations.

    So who is buying? where is this oil going. Turkey? Oil rich Iran? Perhaps an EU "ally" like France, who has recently made comments against what is known as the petro-dollar according to the Durden article. In addition to these things, it has also been reported that sympathetic, (to ISIS), militia groups along the route are making money "protecting these shipments en-route. They are certainly no match for our air power. According to online reports, ISIS controls 11 oilfields in Iraq and Syria. We know where they are. From that information it is safe to assume that we also have the tank truck routes. Why we are not interdicting these shipments raises the question of who's interests are being protected here. We do not have to destroy the oil fields if we can stop the trucks, although I would never take the first option off the table because it might become necessary. The 'black market oil" is netting ISIS millions of dollars a day. Interdiction of these trucks would go a long way toward putting a serious dent in ISIS ability to make war. It would also fit in nicely with Obama's degrade and destroy philosophy. Take the war directly to ISIS and also destroy their ability to rearm and resupply. Why are we not doing this? Why only now is the mainstream press beginning to discuss it?

    As I stated above, I am far from an expert on economics and warfare. I'm just a taxpaying American citizen with a question, which to paraphrase Jimmy Buffett, bothers me so.