Reply #15: You know, eventually we are going to have to face a world [View All]

[lapfog_1]

that doesn't have Iraqi or Saudi oil. When the OPEC embargo happened, our leaders should have created the crash program then to get us off the oil habit. Instead we worked a deal, and sent these 12th century societies boatloads of cash. Their leaders (mostly at our prodding, but also because of previous British meddling and even their own sense of wanting to join the western world) pushed those societies hard to catch up. The Shah and Saddam are the most obvious examples of them pushing for the "norms" of western civilization. But they tried to do it in one or two generations, and with corruption and greed and suppression as the tools of coercion. Is there any wonder that there is a backlash? A longing for the days of their grandfathers where the tribal council could still decide things according to religious law... So they reject western culture where they see greed and sexual standards that are hugely different than theirs (we can't think of a society where a woman can't marry whom she please, can't drive or hold a job, and can't control her own sexual life if she pleases, etc, etc and they can't think of a society that allows such things).

Well, we sent them the money. And the fast food and movies and everything else (we wanted those dollars back dammit), and now we are surprised at the resulting shit storm.

We should have bit the bullet then, kicked our addiction to oil and spent billions on the technology to replace it... no matter how cheap OPEC oil became.

It was the right decision then, it's been the right decision every year since then, and it's the right decision today. Let them have their oil, let's hock everything we have as a nation (our homes, our businesses, our nation landmarks) and finally do this right. The money we save in the first 20 years of being oil free will more than pay back the debt we run up. One trillion ought to just about do it. Maybe.