The U.S. commitment to the region has endured not because specific barrels of oil are departing Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or the UAE for U.S. refineries, but rather because these resources are central to the overall world economy and critical for America’s most important allies and trading partners. Disruptions of supply affect the global system into which America is so integrated—with almost 30 percent of U.S. GDP and close to 40 million jobs resulting from trade with the rest of the world. Even if the U.S. is not importing much Middle Eastern oil, a supply disruption would drive up global
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