A consumer-driven economy like ours is dependent on cheap, reliable energy. We had darn well better be ready to fight, or we'll fall back into a Dark Age.
I can remember when computers used a skyscraper floor of vacuum tubes to run and needed their own HVAC system to stay cool... yet today, a cell phone has as much processing power, and is as common as dirt. If we want to avoid falling back into those "good old days" we will have to defend ourselves.
The way I see it, it's a race between us and China for the oil, and we're a few steps ahead. As for the rest of the world - they can kiss our a$$es - and buy the oil we control at double.