--- title: Obama and ISIS: Rethinking the Carter Doctrine description: After 34 years—and 14 conflicts around the Middle East—it's time to wean the U.S. off Persian Gulf oil. canonical: https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-05T21:19:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:31.509Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama and ISIS: Rethinking the Carter Doctrine og:description: After 34 years—and 14 conflicts around the Middle East—it's time to wean the U.S. off Persian Gulf oil. og:url: https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae1fe4cc816f28a/6986a723e53aba88374d4c8c/456690572.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3100 og:image:height: 1744 og:image:alt: Obama Speaks At Disabled Veterans Memorial Dedication og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama and ISIS: Rethinking the Carter Doctrine twitter:description: After 34 years—and 14 conflicts around the Middle East—it's time to wean the U.S. off Persian Gulf oil. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae1fe4cc816f28a/6986a723e53aba88374d4c8c/456690572.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Greasing the Skids of War: Rethinking the Carter Doctrine > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS [Watch (HLS stream): Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xvTQSd5R.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2014-09-05. A growing number of foreigners is joining the Islamic militant group - but why?_ by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Oct 5, 2014 9:19 PM UTC  President Obama speaks Sunday at a new memorial in Washington dedicated to disabled veterans. President Obama speaks Sunday at a new memorial in Washington dedicated to disabled veterans.Pool / Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Oct 5, 2014 9:19 PM UTC As the U.S.-led war in Syria enters its third week, Americans can be excused for believing their nation has been shooting up the Middle East forever. But they’d be wrong. It’s only been going on, off and on, since 34 years ago. That’s when, shortly after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter [told](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=33079) Moscow—and anyone else who might be listening—that Washington was willing to go to war to keep the Persian Gulf’s petroleum tap open and fueling the U.S. economy. “The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: it contains more than two-thirds of the world’s exportable oil,” Carter said in his final State of the Union address on Jan. 23, 1980. “The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which most of the world’s oil must flow,” he continued. “Let our position be absolutely clear: an attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.” So here we are, a generation later: the Soviets are out of Afghanistan, and America is in. And even though the fight in Afghanistan is the nation’s longest war—and gets longer every day—it’s only one of many Islamic hotspots the U.S. has struck since Carter put down his Middle East marker. Former Army officer Andrew Bacevich, now at Columbia University, rattled them off Sunday in a [column](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/even-if-we-defeat-the-islamic-state-well-still-lose-the-bigger-war/2014/10/03/e8c0585e-4353-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f%5Fstory.html) in the Washington _Post_: --- > “” --- Bacevich writes: --- > “” --- President Obama acknowledged the toll Sunday, when he spoke at the dedication of the new [American Veterans Disabled for Life](http://www.avdlm.org/) memorial near the Capitol. “Let’s never rush into war, because it is America’s sons and daughters who bear the scars of war for the rest of their lives,” he [said](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/10/05/remarks-president-american-veterans-disabled-life-memorial-dedication) at the memorial, which honors the nation’s 4 million disabled vets. “Let us only send them into harm’s way when it’s absolutely necessary.” Perhaps there was a whiff of hindsight in his words. But it may be foresight to revisit Carter’s declaration. While the hunger for oil remains relentless, the U.S. is far more energy independent today than it was in 1980\. That should allow the U.S. to ease its addiction to Persian Gulf oil, which too often has served to grease the skids of war. “This July the United States replaced Saudi Arabia as the world’s No. 1 oil producer,” Arthur Herman of the Hudson Institute [wrote](http://www.hudson.org/research/10643-america-s-new-oil-weapon) last month in _National Review_, “and virtually every industry study indicates that the trend will continue through the next two decades and beyond.” Much of the U.S. gain is due to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a production method that now accounts for roughly a third of U.S. oil and gas production. Adds Herman: --- > “” --- Actually, U.S. taxpayers have spent close to $10 trillion to keep oil flowing to the world from Persian Gulf, based on a 2010 [analysis](http://nation.time.com/2011/04/24/a-question-for-the-obama-administration/) from Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Princeton University. Imagine if a slice of that had instead been invested to speed up U.S. energy independence. Wars would surely still unfold in the Middle East—as they will likely do so for generations—but it’d be bracing to watch them from the sidelines, for a change. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/"},"headline":"Greasing the Skids of War: Rethinking the Carter Doctrine","datePublished":"2014-10-05T21:19:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:31.509Z","description":"After 34 years—and 14 conflicts around the Middle East—it's time to wean the U.S. off Persian Gulf oil","url":"https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/","keywords":["Military","Syria","Iraq","Terrorism","National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae1fe4cc816f28a/6986a723e53aba88374d4c8c/456690572.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ae1fe4cc816f28a/6986a723e53aba88374d4c8c/456690572.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Speaks At Disabled Veterans Memorial Dedication","caption":"Obama Speaks At Disabled Veterans Memorial Dedication","creditText":"Pool / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/","name":"Greasing the Skids of War: Rethinking the Carter Doctrine"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why So Many Foreign Fighters Join ISIS","description":"A growing number of foreigners is joining the Islamic militant group - but why?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xvTQSd5R/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-05T19:18:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xvTQSd5R.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/","duration":"PT2M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3472277/syria-us-war/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```