> Neither is the Middle East [an area of vital security interest to the United States]

> So long as [the Suez Canal and the Gulf] remained open the region does not matter very much to the United States.

I feel his assumption there can't be correct. Just look at the amount of military bases the US has built in the region, or the sheer number of wars there that the US was involved in. I can't imagine that a country would spend that kind of resources, money and lives for an area it deems not of vital strategic importance.