Posted on 09/16/2011 6:46:30 AM PDT by Brices Crossroads
For the past ten years, America has been at war. Over the course of this war, more than 7,000 U.S. and coalition servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Still, there is no end in sight. We pour money into these countries, we sacrifice our brave men and women, and yet, progress is slow. Many of the problems we face stem from our leaders’ inability to understand the nature of the present conflict. Like the Cold War, the “war on terror” is primarily a conflict of ideas–a clash of irreconcilable world views. As the limited success we have experienced in the last ten years has profoundly illustrated, this is not a war that can be won in the traditional manner. Our present strategy ignores the source of our enemy’s great power–our country’s dependence on foreign oil. By refusing to explore the rich petroleum resources in our own country, we feed the very beast to which we sacrifice American lives in battle.
Indeed, in 2003, David Kaplan compiled five months of research into an important article for U.S. News and World Report detailing the elaborate connections between Saudi oil and terrorist financing:
"Working with the Illicit Transactions Group, the NSC [National Security Council] formed a task force to look at al Qaeda’s finances. For months, members scoured every piece of data the U.S. intelligence community had on al Qaeda’s cash. The team soon realized that its most basic assumptions about the source of bin Laden’s money–his personal fortune and businesses in Sudan–were wrong. Dead wrong. Al Qaeda, says William Wechsler, the task force director, was “a constant fundraising machine.” And where did it raise most of those funds? The evidence was indisputable: Saudi Arabia. America’s longtime ally and the world’s largest oil producer had somehow become, as a senior Treasury Department official put it, “the epicenter” of terrorist financing. This didn’t come entirely as a surprise to intelligence specialists…Over the past 25 years, the desert kingdom has been the single greatest force in spreading Islamic fundamentalism, while its huge, unregulated charities funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to jihad groups and al Qaeda cells around the world."
Although we know Saudi Arabia and its wealthiest citizens actively seek our destruction by funding these terrorist organizations, we continue to turn a blind eye to these enemies. As we fill up our tanks, submitting ourselves to this toxic dependency, we pad their wallets today with the funds that will be channeled to those terror networks tomorrow.
But what can we do? We need oil, and they have it. They have us over a barrel, right? Wrong! During the Vice Presidential Debate in 2008, Governor Palin directly addressed this issue:
"When we talk about energy, we have to consider the need to do all that we can to allow this nation to become energy independent. It’s a nonsensical position that we are in when we have domestic supplies of energy all over this great land. And East Coast politicians who don’t allow energy-producing states like Alaska to produce these, to tap into them, & instead we’re relying on foreign countries to produce for us. We’re circulating about $700 billion a year into foreign countries, some who do not like America–they certainly don’t have our best interests at heart–instead of those dollars circulating here, creating thousands of jobs and allowing domestic supplies of energy to be tapped into and start flowing into these very, very hungry markets. Energy independence is the key to this nation’s future, to our economic future, and to our national security."
As Governor Palin has continually advocated, we have the energy resources in this country to make America “the energy superpower.” In her speech in Indianola on September 3rd, Governor Palin outlined a five point economic plan aimed at restoring the U.S. to economic health. Her fourth point in this plan is development of our domestic energy resources:
"The real stimulus that we’ve been waiting for is robust and responsible domestic energy production. We have the resources. Affordable and secure energy is the key to any thriving economy, and it must be our foundation. So, I would do the opposite of Obama’s manipulation of U.S. supplies of energy. Drill here, drill now. Let the refineries and the pipelines be built. Stop kowtowing to foreign countries and dictators asking them to ramp up production and industry for us, promising them that we’ll be their greatest customer. No, not when we have the resources here. We need to move on tapping our own God-given natural resources. I promise you that this will bring real job growth, not the politicians’ phony “green jobs” fairy dust sprinkled with wishes and glitter… No, a hardcore all-of-the-above energy policy that builds this indestructible link between made-in-America energy and our prosperity and our security."
From the moment she stepped onto the national stage, Governor Palin’s message has been clear. Domestic energy production is vital both to our economy and to our national security. While we must drill today, we also must invest in smart and efficient energy solutions for tomorrow. As we develop these alternative energy technologies, it makes little sense as a purely economic matter for us to keep conventional energy resources in reserve. We should use these resources now while they are most valuable to us, instead of hoarding them for a time when they will be as outdated as dial-up internet is today.
What kind of effect would this “drill here, drill now” energy policy have on those foreign countries, such as Saudi Arabia, who not only wish us ill but who also actively seek our destruction? Over the weekend, I read a truly fantastic piece by Brices Crossroads in which he discusses some of the ways in which he predicts President Palin will battle radical Islamic militants. I was most intrigued by Brices’ perspective on the economic arm of this strategy:
"On the economic front, she would undertake an energy development program similar to Reagan’s arms buildup in the 1980s, in the following sense. Reagan understood that the Soviet economy was too sick and fragile to keep up with the United States and that, if he pressed it with such an arms race, the Soviet Union would collapse. Palin understands that the Islamic economies are even more fragile than the old Soviet Union, almost solely dependent, as they are, upon oil exports. Palin further understands that the United States has the largest fossil fuel deposits (including coal, oil and natural gas) in the world, equivalent to one trillion three hundred twenty four billion (1,324,000,000,000) barrels of oil (called Barrel of Oil Equivalents or BOE). Russia is second at one trillion two hundred forty six billion(1,246,000,000,000) BOE, with Saudi Arabia and China a distant third and fourth with roughly five hundred billion BOE each. The United States has more fossil fuel reserves than Saudi Arabia, China and Iraq combined (See Table Six). We have more than three times the BOE reserves of Iran. Palin alone seems to understand that, with an all out effort to develop our own vast resources and our superior ingenuity and technology, we can crater the economies of those Middle Eastern regimes which wish us ill and, at the same time, send the U.S economy soaring into the stratosphere. Her successes in spurring energy development in Alaska with ACES and AGIA are but a microcosm of her designs for the American economy at large."
With this policy, President Palin could starve those hostile to us and defeat an enemy that has thus far fed off of our energy weakness. Instead of contiunuing to feed the beast, America can destroy it whilst effecting its own economic revival. Sounds like a great plan to me! Saudi Arabia, game on!
Ping to another great article by Students4Palin!
Very nice article. EAGLES UP SARAH...WE ARE WAITING FOR YOU!
But SA is our friend... Bush said so!!
All kidding aside, a lot of that oil is simply very difficult to get to. Evironuts aside.
If she doesn’t run, then the next Republican President should make her the energy secretary and just give her the command/promise ... “fix our energy problem ... I’ll stay out of your way.”
Born February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, ID (Meets the Jus Soli Requirement)
Parents were
Charles R Heath, born in ID
Sarah Sheeran, born in WI
Both parents were US Citizens at the time of her birth (Meets the Jus Sanguinis Requirement)
Sarah Palin is a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN
Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama ISN'T!
Um, she’s not running.
When was that announcement made?
Palin is not running for President.
But she is spot on, in this, and this should be shouted from the mountaintops loudly and often:
“The real stimulus that we’ve been waiting for is robust and responsible domestic energy production. We have the resources. Affordable and secure energy is the key to any thriving economy, and it must be our foundation. So, I would do the opposite of Obama’s manipulation of U.S. supplies of energy. Drill here, drill now. Let the refineries and the pipelines be built. Stop kowtowing to foreign countries and dictators asking them to ramp up production and industry for us, promising them that we’ll be their greatest customer. No, not when we have the resources here. We need to move on tapping our own God-given natural resources. I promise you that this will bring real job growth, not the politicians’ phony “green jobs” fairy dust sprinkled with wishes and glitter… No, a hardcore all-of-the-above energy policy that builds this indestructible link between made-in-America energy and our prosperity and our security.”
I hope the GOP nominee will commit that particular agenda to memory!!!!
There hasn't been one. She isn't running.
Um, Sarah Palin told you that...when, exactly? You have no idea what she intends to do - and neither do I - but I hope Governor Palin does choose to run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. We need a true conservative with the energy, ideas and charisma to win the election and help us to get back to work and regain our leadership position in the world that Obama has tried so hard to destroy.
When you cut through all the petty criticisms, Palin was an excellent governor and even more important, is a person of integrity, something in very short supply in the political world. This is why the left constantly attempts to portray her - falsely - as a lying, vindictive hypocrite. This is the essence of the latest smear job on Sarah Palin by the execrable Joe McGuinniss. There is a reason the left and some GOP establishment types try to denigrate Governor Palin and that they usually attack her honesty and integrity and why they fail in the attempt: because Palin is 'authentic'. In both a literal and figurative sense, what you see is what you get. She is not one person in public and another in private. This confounds the left who assume every politician is like a liberal Democrat - a phony. Sarah Palin is not and the left doesn't really know how to deal with this so they simply lie about her. A sure sign of their desperation.
Governor Palin has some sensible, feasible ideas on how we can begin to harvest the oil that lies under our own county. Yes, it won't affect gas prices instantly and some of it is hard to obtain. That shouldn't be a reason not to do it. The fact that America is finally, seriously attempting to drill for oil on our land will have a sobering effect on oil prices, globally and with the potential profits in store, oil companies would be willing to spend the kind of money necessary to find and extract the oil they know is underground in the U.S. The petrodollars that now fund much of the Islamic terrorism organizations would eventually be greatly reduced and this would definitely have a salutary effect on our war against terrorism.
The 'she's not running' meme is predictable on these Palin-oriented threads but as always, it is mere speculation. However, metaphorically, the clock is ticking and, inevitably, we'll all know her decision, soon.
In other words you don’t know either.
You know you Palin clingers wouldn’t be so patient with her coyness and games playing if she looked like, oh, I don’t know, Andrea Mitchell, but everything else about her was identical to what it currently is. In other words, you’re obsessed with her beauty, and you’re letting that get the best of you. Let it go. The ship has left port and she wasn’t on it.
And Reagan may never have been elected if he hadn’t been a movie star first. That’s life. Some people put their beauty to good use.
For someone whose handle is crosshair; you sure do paint targets with LARGE brush strokes.
I do know she isn't running. She may run in the future, but at this point, she isn't. Kind of irrelevant to speculate what a President Palin might do.
Ummmm, that is just about the UNwittiest statement from a PDSer I have ever seen.
Being a female myself, I have supported Sarah Palin since long before I ever knew what she looked like and long before she ever walked onto the national stage.
I will not enumerate the reasons why. But she is far more worthy of my support than any pf the “top tier” rino crooks that are running so far. FAR more.
It's not speculation. She isn't running. She may decide to run in the future, but she isn't running as of now.
It IS speculation to talk about what President Palin would do. We don't know if she'll run, we don't know if she'd win if she did run, and since she's not set a platform (since she isn't running), we don't know what she'd do if she were President.
Great. Then you’re in denial, because she’s too late. She can’t skip all of the debates and hope to jump in after all the fray is gone.
Qhen did that Great loser Ronald Reagan announce. Surely, by this time his election was assured. >/sarc
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