To Have and Have Not: Energy security vs energy independence in a world awash in cheap oil

This is a little about the human development index but also about the state of US forces in the Middle East and demonstrates that we are widely deployed and we will remain so. You can see some of the deployments of the US fleet, such as the USS Iwo Jima and the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike groups, and as you can see they are not exactly guarding San Francisco, and you might ask why that is.

And the answer is that they sort of are guarding San Francisco, or rather the world economic system under which San Francisco does so well. Which is to say, they are making the world safe for the petroleum trade.