by Dan Creamer

Created on: January 13, 2007   Last Updated: May 21, 2007

The Interdependence of Islamic and Christian Societies and the Consequences of Fundamentalist Philosophies

First, let me say that the title of this piece is easily the most impressive part of the whole. It is relatively easy to come up with a catchy, bombastic, sensational or pompous title and quite difficult to conduct the research, gather the information, analyze it for meaning and efficacy and then draw meaningful and correct conclusions. Understanding the intricacies of the foreign policy of the United States could be (and for many is) a lifetime pursuit. So many economic, political, religious, regional, ethnic, business, societal and even personal factors come into play in the ever-changing tapestry of interdependencies that just getting a basic understanding is a daunting task, at least for me. The current shooting war in the Middle East has caused me to rethink my own views and research the matter. It is amazing what a little web surfing turns up.

It seems that Iran is blessed with a large supply of not only oil (approximately five percent of the world's entire supply) but also huge natural gas reserves amounting to eight percent of world supply. That makes it second behind Saudi Arabia in production of oil and second behind Russia in natural gas. Those facts along with Iran's desire to develop those resources with some of its Asian neighbor's, notably Pakistan, India and China, is more worrisome long term then any potential nuclear weapons program it might develop. The availability of large amounts of relatively inexpensive energy to countries like China and Pakistan combined with Iran's desire and willingness to be paid in currencies other then the dollar, is considered more inimical to our macro economic interest then their ability to export terror or develop weapons of mass destruction.

Geographically Iran has fifteen neighbors and it is in a position to obtain massive amounts of monetary, political, religious and economic influence in its neighborhood and then throughout Asia. That scares and befuddles our government. As a result, we have declared Iran a partner in the axis of evil and refused to engage in any dialogue other then consistent diatribes against every aspect of their society. Granted the Immans and Mullahs that rule Iran are reticent in their willingness to engage the United States in any meaningful dialogue but some historical perspective sheds light on the reasons for that and light shows the way.

In 1951 the Iranian government of Dr

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