Editorial

Feeling effects of international events in our area

Monday, June 16, 2014

When old newspaper people used to get together, one would insult another by charging that his publication was "addicted to Afghanistan."

It wasn't an altogether inaccurated allegation; it's always easier to fill space with news transmitted from afar via the wire services. That's why papers like this one emphasize local stories as much as possible -- no one in Afghanistan is especially interested in McCook goings-on -- unless it happens to be a service member from here, for one example.

But a number of factors, worldwide trade and instant electronic communication, have changed the game, as has America's military activities.

We're watching that play out in Iraq, where insurgents spilling over from Syria have been performing mass executions and the United States has even turned to Iran -- Iran! -- for help in dealing with the situation. We're also starting to evacuate our embassy in Baghdad, in hopes of avoiding anothe diplomatic tragedy like the one in Libya.

A few weeks ago, many of us made our annual pilgrimage to local cemeteries, a poignant experience for family and friends of Randy Matheny, a member of the Nebraska National Guard killed by an IED near Baghdad in 2007. Not all of us knew the young man from McCook, but all of us know someone who was deployed, or someone who has a family member who was deployed, injured or killed in the war in Iraq.

What does this portend for Afghanistan? Will we still be able to withdraw on the time schedule President Obama has promised? While he has promised no ground troops will be sent into Iraq, that's been hedged a bit -- 100 or so will go in to help protect embassy personnel in Baghdad.

The price of gasoline in Southwest Nebraska is nothing compared to seeing a friend or loved one depoloyed to Iraq or Afghanistan, but it's no small concern to someone who has a long commute work each day.

Observers had been hoping we'd see lower gasoline prices this summer, and prices on Sunday in Nebraska were 6.9 cents per gallon lower than they were a year ago, but 7.5 cents higher than a month ago.

The United States receives "only" about 300,000 barrels of crude oil from Iraq each day, but the country pumps about 3 million a day, and disruption of that supply could cause prices to jump worldwide.

"The bigger picture here is that the timing of the situation in Iraq could threaten the possibility that motorists see lower prices this summer, as we had anticipated in our much earlier forecasts," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which keeps track of gas prices in 140,000 gasoline stations in the U.S. and Canada.

Storm clouds, of course, can sometimes have a silver lining; higher prices boost activity in the oilfields of Southwest Nebraska.

But gasoline and oil prices are only one example of the ways our lives are affected by events in far away lands.

Next time you fill up at the pump, email a loved one in the military, or go to the election polls, remember that decisions made in Washington in response to international events have consequences even here.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: