# What would happen if America stuck by it's principles?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-america-stuck-by-its-principles/570058>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 3, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-america-stuck-by-its-principles/570058 "2011-02-03T19:28:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-america-stuck-by-its-principles/570058/21 "2011-02-06T21:58:37Z")

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The United States doesn’t buy much of the oil produced in the Middle East. Already most of it goes to Europe, which makes sense if you think about it for a minute.

However, as has been said, oil is a global commodity. If one buyer or seller refuses to transact business with another buyer or seller, the effect is very small simply because that’s how commodities markets work. Both the parties who don’t transact business with each other lose a little bit, and the other suppliers and buyers gain a little bit. But the effect is minor.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-america-stuck-by-its-principles/570058/22 "2011-02-08T05:40:17Z")

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> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> I expect he means “_alleged_ principles”.

Dude, stop making me agree with you.

Yeah, I know we love our snark here. But it needs to at least be intelligent snark. If your snark can be refuted in one line, it doesn’t qualify.

As for the subject: um, I have to admit I’m rather ignorant since there’s little I can do about it. But I will point out that just a single path being blocked is causing gas prices to rise, which causes the price of everything else in the economy to rise. We’d have to have a viable replacement before following our alleged principals would be possible. Remember, our economy is not that good.

In other words, just because we can get our oil second hand doesn’t mean it won’t hurt the economy.

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**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-america-stuck-by-its-principles/570058/23 "2011-02-08T22:02:46Z")

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> [@Deeg](#):
>
> Take Iran as an example. We propped up a dictator who was no pic-nic who eventually lost power. Did the Iranian revolution bring about a better regime? Would our principles have been better served by supporting the Shah but privately putting pressure on him to change?

I think we, and our purported principles, would have been best served by not _installing_ Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the first place. Had we not fucked with them in 1953, there’s a good chance that Iran would be both more democratic and more secular today.

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