Oil wars.

If you have seen VICE,  you know that Dick Cheney is portrayed as a sincere ambitious man who decided to become President as Vice-President.  What isn't conveyed is how this semi-retired oil executive somehow got selected to be the "power behind the throne" in the administration.  Literally.  To make sense of that,  it helps to remember that Cheney retired from being CEO and Chairman of the board of  the Halliburton company the day he became Bush's campaign manager.   Halliburton was and is a major oil production services company (not an oil processing and selling company) with subsidiary businesses that manage outsourced military services. During the Second Gulf War,  many soldiers going into battle carried signs saying "Cheney-Halliburton" to indicate their belief that the war was about oil interests,  not national security.  The eventual outcome did not serve either interest.  There were no weapons of mass destruction discovered to disarm,  the oil fields did not come under US control,  and Iraq was overwhelmed in a mishandled rebuilding which led to a chaotic transition that is only now improving.  Although it was noted at the time that oil interests were a major motivation,  this was not emphasized in most media,  or that Cheney was likely designated by the oil industry to lead the charge.  (Unexplained are how he went from Secretary of Defense under George Bush, to CEO and Chairman of the Board of a major oil services company, and how he transitioned back into government seemingly without any outside influence.)

Cheney is important only to show how powerful the interests of oil companies are in American politics, and have been for decades,  perhaps as far back as the Teapot Dome.  This influence impacts American policy in the Middle East,  in Venezuela and South America,  and of course in Texas and Louisiana.  These states get the publicity brunt of being the major oil promoters,  but in reality major refineries exist on the east coast,  and California is still a producer of roughly 1/3rd of US oil,  although it takes the stance of being pro-environment as a state. (California is famous as the place where public transportation in Los Angeles was destroyed to promote automobiles and consume gasoline,  only to lead to toxic pollution in the city in the 70s-80s.)  

Much of the power and dominance of the US is due to its endowment of fossil fuels.  Coal,  oil, and natural gas are widely distributed and have provided the source for generating electric power,  along with fuel for railroads, automobiles, public transportation, and industry.  China,  relatively lacking in sources,  is struggling to maintain its productivity.  Europe has needed supplementary sources since the end of WWI, and fossil fuels are expensive there.  Which leads to Russia,  and its determination to be a major oil producer,  first from Georgian fields,  then discovering oil in the Black Sea area,  and now trying to annex oil from the discoveries in the Ukraine.  

So the world is faced with yet another war of exploitation when one nation attempts to annex control of another nation's oil resources.  It is ironic how outraged the US is about Russian aggression, so soon after its own previous aggression.  Maybe US producers want access to the Ukraine field development themselves.  That is the nature of politics and life:  Countries behave like greedy children who don't want to share and want someone else's toys and resources.  It is hard to see how this way of dealing with each other will change after thousands of years.

It is also ironic that this war is taking place when it is becoming clear that the environment of the earth is warming,  and that atmospheric effects of CO2 and other fossil fuel exhausts is contributing to, or actually the cause for, this major change in climate.  One might expect a world wide agreement to manage the use of fossil fuels,  but instead we have the Paris Accord and other efforts in which the regions with less resources support the agreements,  while the regions with more do not,  hoping to capitalize on their advantage.

Everyone who is reasonably informed knows this.  Yet it doesn't change.  The oil from Russia is embargoed and the oil companies raise prices before the older oil is out of the gas station pumps.  But then raising prices is good:  it lowers use and protects the environment a little.  Crazy.