Welcome back. Last time we set up the introduction to the series, and I hope I didn't scare anyone away with the last episode.

Today we're going to look at the first Gulf War, the war between Iran and Iraq, as well as the tanker war.

So sit back and get ready for a walk down memory lane, at least for some of us.

But first, you thought I'd forgotten,

right? It's our song in the week. Because we're on Patreon and this is behind a paywall, I can use any

music I want. I want to go back to the mid-1980s, and to help us do it, the song is Land of Confusion

by Genesis. Enjoy it, and I'll see you in a moment.

Okay, before we get fully into the 1991 war, which is the next episode, it would help you to understand what happened in the 1980s.

I'll try to go through this as quickly and painlessly as possible, but I think it's important and it's worth the time.

So to start, let's talk about the Carter Doctrine.

On January 23, 1980, President Carter in his State of the Union, had a short statement that would change the trajectory of American policy in the Middle East for at least the next 40 years.

The president asserted that simultaneous crises in Afghanistan and Iran were a threat to world peace.

My question is, were they?

More like a threat to the American way of life, but more on that in a second. Let's listen to the president himself. The president went on to say that no one, except the United States, of course,

would be allowed to dominate the Persian Gulf region. Well, he didn't quite say it like that, but that is the implication, and why not? Well, if that happened, it would have hurt the price of fuel in the United States, and the U.S. was highly dependent upon cheap fuel to maintain its way of life, especially at that point. As someone whom, for the most of the last 20 years, owned a big Chevy truck, I can assure

you I hate paying high gas prices just as much as the next guy. And our infrastructure is geared

towards the use of either the automobile, mainly for short trips or commutes, and for long trips

of over 600 miles or so, it's airlines. Unlike Japan, France, and even China, we don't have

a solid passenger rail system, at least not anymore. Now, of course, France, and even China, we don't have a solid passenger rail system,

at least not anymore. Now, of course, today the United States is a net exporter of gasoline,

thanks to the fracking revolution, which came about because of the fact that two things happened

around 2008. First, oil prices skyrocketed to almost $150 a barrel that year, in August, if I remember correctly.

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