Leon Panetta says that Iran would be crossing a “red line” if it blockaded oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Granted, disruption of oil supplies from the Middle East would have a devastating impact on the world economy, including China, Europe and the United States. But at the same time, wouldn’t the oil exporting countries of the Middle East (including Iran itself) have as much or more to lose? Things could get even dicier for Arab despots if they couldn’t afford to give their people all the perqs that flow from selling oil. After all, the rest of the world would still have access to oil produced elsewhere. With conservation and some hardship, we could get by for a while, but the producers’ entire economies would be suspended. So, shouldn’t it be the oil producers who are drawing red lines and threatening to unleash all those weapons the USA has been selling them for years so that they could maintain order in their neck of the woods? As Popeye used to say, “Let’s you and him fight.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz6X8g754oE