tritium tritium:
What I don't understand is all the fuss. When I stick that nozzle into my gas tank, I don't give a shit where the gas came from. (dirty oil, middle east, gulf of Mexico) All I care about is the price and that my car will run for another 500 miles.
That's the problem right there.
Do you think OPEC would have so much influence and power if we didn't buy oil from them? If we drove more efficient vehicles/ had more efficient power plants, etc, we could tell them to shove their oil up there asses and not give a damn about them and their war on the Great Satan. Just ignore them like Africa and the problem would pretty much go away.
Instead, we put thousands of troops in countries around the Middle East to protect our interests and, in the eyes of the extremists, occupy their countries. Do you think any Muslims gave a fuck about the West in 1900? Or whether we cared about them or not in 1900? Hell no. The Iranian Revolution was motivated (at least in part) by US influence in Tehran. Why do you think the Saudis give shitloads to El Qaeda? To keep them from starting a civil war and killing off the Saudi royal family.
If we didn't need their oil, we wouldn't have to deal with them and all their BS.