We’re in it for Syria’s oil

Re “Caveats to U.S. push for Syrian oil,” Nov. 5

The fact that President Trump is willing to risk American soldiers’ lives and taxpayer money to protect Saudi and Syrian oil, but he will not do the same to protect innocent civilians or our Kurdish allies who fought and died by the thousands to protect our interests, says all you need to know about the priorities of this president and frankly the majority of the current Republican Party.

Just as shameful is these same people will sacrifice the health of our people and our planet to protect the interests of the fossil fuel industry.

This administration will go down as the most corrupt in American history, assuming we survive long enough to look back on this period.

Mark Johnson

Marina del Rey

Trump makes the blunt, arrogant, imperialistic claim that the U.S. has the implicit right to intervene anywhere in the world, to do whatever a president wishes (in this case, procure a country’s natural resources — “I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”)

In response, an L.A. Times article says that “the problem” with this plan is that the quantity of resources to be extracted is low, there are infrastructure difficulties, and it’s “complex” from a military, legal and economic standpoint.

Thus is evident the unstated assumption that the U.S. is sovereign over the entire Earth. Gary Stewart

Laguna Beach

By what authority is Trump keeping American forces in a (possibly hostile) foreign country to take control of the oil fields?

Did Congress approve of this? Are we at war with Syria? Were we invited by that country’s government or Russia, which has a large military presence there? Who gets the oil?

And, what will we do if there is a military confrontation with Syrian or Russian forces? Edward Gilbert

Studio City