Why don't we use our one best weapon?

Submitted by Jeff (United States), Dec 18, 2006 at 21:28

Why don't we use the one best weapon we have? I'm referring to the oil weapon. What's that you say, I thought the Arabs and the Iranians had the oil weapon. Didn't they use it in 1973? Yes, because we let them. But the stick has two ends. If we don't buy their oil, it becomes our weapon.

Without oil sales, the Saudis could no longer fund Al Queda or the insurrection in Iraq. Without oil sales, the Saudis coiuld no longer build their schools of hate throughout the Muslim world, the USA, Canada and Europe.

Without oil sales, Iran could no longer finance its atomic weapons program, Hezbollah, or the insurrection in Iraq.

Meanwhile, we go along thinking we can defeat an enemy in Iraq that enjoys unlimited funding and weapons from the folks who sell us oil.

I'm sure the Saudis were very frightened that after September 11, we might finally get serious about energy independence to cut off terrorist funding. It didn't take long for them to see they had nothing to fear from our president, who later strolled hand-in-hand at the ranch with the Saudi king.

I wonder how it would have been if Harry Truman or John Kennedy had been president on September 11. Imagine if we had a president who, after September 11, had said something like this:

1. I will enable our Coast Guard to really guard our coasts.

2. I will enable our Border Patrol to really patrol our borders.

3. And by the end of my term, the United States will import almost no foreign oil. The country that put a man on the moon, gave us polio vaccines, and split the atom can and will accomplish this task. We will work toward, and succeed in meeting our own energy needs, through domestic and alternative sources, and imports from a short list of friends, such as Canada. Also, I have invited our friends, India and Japan, to join us in an organization of oil importing countries.

Together we will create a brain trust and the projects that will bring us all to energy independence. Yes, this will require cooperation and sacrifice from every American. Each of us must use less oil-based energy in the near term. This ongoing project will starve the terrorists of their funding and allow us to conduct a foreign policy based on our own self-interest and our own morality, and not international bribery. The effort will be ongoing, and will need each of us. It's not an effort for sprinters; we will be long distance runners.

Had that been said then,

What do you suppose the price of a barrel of oil would be now?

How many rockets would Hezbollah have today?

How would Iran's nuclear weapons program be going today?

How would Al Queda finance any large-scale attacks today?

What would our balance of trade look like today?

What would the dollar be worth today, vs. other currencies?

And how would Mr. Chavez blow his tin horn? What does he have besides oil money?

OK, a pleasant dream, given the imagination and leadership capabilities of our current president.

But maybe, just maybe, two years from now won't be too late. All of us should make it clear to anyone who wants to be our next president: we're not suicidal. We want to stop funding Islamic imperialism, terrorism, hate and mass murder. We want to use the oil weapon. We want to be energy independent.

So let's stop "stealing Arab resources" at 60-70 dollars a barrel (for 5 dollar barrels of oil). They can keep their resources. We get to keep our lives.

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