How cars fuel the forever war (opens in new tab)

With the Iran war spluttering to a close, mavens of American decline will be sharpening their pens. We can already guess what they’ll say. Everyone now understands that the United States runs on cheap oil, and that the Washington establishment will risk sandy quagmires to preserve it. But what’s explored less often is why America perennially treats fluctuations in the crude price as a matter of geopolitical life and death.