When we start with reality as it is, now, our foreign policy is being handled brilliantly. If we weren't dependent on ten million barrels a day of imported oil, and weren't so unwilling to do what it takes to get past the "Oil Age", then it might develop that the whole Middle East would not have anything anyone else might want except perhaps for hand tyed rugs bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year instead of oil's tens of millions a day. The strategic situation would be very different indeed.
What the heck does this mean?
"weren't so unwilling to do what it takes to get past the "Oil Age"
What would it take to get past the 'oil age' as you call it - in dollars, roughly speaking. How does that impact the individual consumer as relates to prices paid, jobs lost, etc.? How long will it take?
And what does the 'oil age' have to do with Iraq? You still haven't answered the question - how would you have handled the problem of Iraq without 'empire' as you call it?