And the real oil expense no one wants to talk about; a huge percent of the US defense budget (and foreign policy) is devoted to protecting oil production and transportation.
Correct. If the Middle East just grew turnips, no one would care about them and Bin Ladin would have never been heard of.
That is also why oil prices are so low right now. If the US really got going on oil sand production, the Middle East would lose its only source of income. The countries don’t have any other economy.
The funny thing is that the two places placed to expand post oil are Iran (who has been under embargo for so long they had to develop something else) and Russia.