> then plot a graph of "historic interest of the US in the ME" against, "oil dependency on the middle east"

I'd love to see such a plot :D One would have to come up with some proxy-metrics to stand in (one shouldn't use explicit axis labels though, that would destroy the nice vibe of having such a plot). There might be dozens of plausible versions of such a plot that might even differ enough to allow any claim one wants.