I believe there are many examples in history of what happens when a country allows itself to become dependent upon other countries for essential resources necessary for human survival. The more dependent the United States becomes on other countries, the more of a "national interest" it has in what happens in those countries - the more embroiled it gets in wars and actions to protect those foreign resources, our continued access to them and the ability to transport those resources to the homeland.
Having local resources, the knowledge and technology to develop those resources, a market system to distribute those resources and an industry to utilize them and make them into useable products is economic independence. We have outsourced our industry, so that we no longer have the infrastructure to manufacture. Markets have become global. We have encumbered access to our local natural resources with regulation so that we no longer can afford to develop them. We have burdened technological advances in genetics with fearful notions. In the process, we are losing a generation of knowledge. We are losing our national independence and our strength.
We are losing our small miners, loggers, farmers and ranchers. We are becoming a bloated and decadent empire dependent upon economic third world "colonies" to produce the products that serve our basic needs. In the meanwhile, our saved wealth is hemorrhaging to other nations as our real standard of living descends, bolstered only by credit on our future wealth.
Wealth is natural resources + labor and knowledge. The vast number of our farmers and ranchers are at retirement age. Doesn't that scare you a bit?
I would add that since the Lord decided to put most of the oil underneath land populated by people that hate us, we just have to deal with it. His will be done.
But if we stupidly place our food supply in the same situation, we deserve what will happen to us.