Why else would we be in there? Syria is meaningless outside of the context of oil security. It's the whole reason why the west installed Gaddafi in the first place.
Because it would undermine our image considerably if we had not intervened and allowed Gaddaffi to continue his slaughter. There is no Arab consensus to intervene in Syria - there was in Libya, and it was considerable.
That's basically what I just said. Oil security is security.
Security isnt just oil security. The destabilization of Libya had a significant impact on the stability of Europe and the world economy. As a bloc that promotes Democracy, our intervention there was symbolic of our aim to support it and promote Democracy globally, because those are the fundamental beliefs of our systems, because after trying everything else we believe it is the only system of rule that will get us as close to "freedom" in its pure definition without the complete breakup of society and because we believe it is the most important way of contributing to our fellow man. If we had held any other attitude during the Cold War, we wouldnt be here today, and the opposing bloc in the 21st century is Tyranny.
We don't need to go to war to secure those supplies. This is about us directly controling the supplies. The west has made it a policy to not negotiate for oil, but to simply invade and take it, installing dictators along the way. I'm not sulking, but simply pointing out the hypocrisy of our foreign policy. On the surface we're about freedom and democracy but our actions say otherwise.
Sad truth is, we dont live in a Utopian society. You need to accept that sometimes in life we need to go against our values at the expense of some for the common good of all. We didnt fund the Mujahedeen because we foresaw they would turn against us, even though we knew they had a violent Islamic agenda and that they would subject their populations to them.
But we did it to fight an even greater threat to our freedom; Communism. And guess what? It worked. Just like Mubarak, the Saudis, Ben Ali and Syria played a role in fighting a common enemy that was far more of a threat and represented far worse things than these individual puppets ever did, could or would. And we knew by installing an iron fisted dictator on the Western paycheck, the rebellious sympathizers could be dealt with and crushed unlike what they could under a Democracy where they would likely cease power, and as a result be a strong and reliable ally in times of conflict.
And consequentially we still are superpowers, we still only represent 15% of the worlds population but generate 65% of the planets entire wealth. If we didnt act like hypocritical arseholes in nations that in effect hold the batteries of our economy, somebody else would have beaten us to it.
Not because we are "cruel hypocritical sissies" but because we know there is a time and a place for everything, and our freedoms and our economic needs come first before all.
We went into Libya to confront old injustices, old mistakes and a help sustain a new generation and we won it.
Not to mention... our government is never up front about oil security. Invasions always happen under false pre-texts. You're ok with the government lying to your face while using your tax dollars to cause civil upheaval, kill thousands of people (in the case of Iraq, it's in the hundreds of thousands), and then transfer oil profits to private interests?
Evidence?
Not anymore I don't. I used to believe that we stood for something greater, but I'm glad that delusion didn't last long. Our governments are no different in behavior toward foreign countries that some of the worst dictators in history. We slaughter millions to secure our luxury goods, and then the biggest insult of all is that we conceal it behind the tidy face of democracy and freedom.
We go about slaughtering innocent civilians for oil do we? I believe you are my deluded now then you was when you held your previous stance.