How does our dependence on foreign oil impact global terrorism?
Our dependence on foreign oil is having a direct impact on terrorism and the way we're viewed around the world. Every time we spend two or three dollars on a gallon of gasoline, 60% of that is going back to foriegn countries, most of which include the Middle East, with a lot of those Middle Eastern countries are actually funding the terrorists. So when we buy a gallon of gasoline, we're directly funding terrorism, make no mistake about it. But more importantly, we're also funding a continuation of a system that really has no justification. We're spending money to send our armies to foreign countries like Iraq to protect our source of foreign oil so that we can continue this petroleum pollution joyride that we think is such a bargain, and it isn't at all. It's also creating a sense of anger around the world, with a whole generation of young people being raised, in what are now "occupied countries" in the Middle East, hating America. 9/11 should have been a wake-up call to this country, showing not just that there was terrorism in the world, but there were reasons for terrorism in the world. And while there's no excuse for someone flying an airplane into a building full of innocent citizens, we certainly have to try to understand what it is that makes people around the world so angry at us that they could even conceive of doing something like that. A lot of it is related to our foreign policy which is based on protecting our supply of foreign oil. And we're protecting a supply of something that isn't doing us any good. It's harming our economy, it's harming our public health and it's destroying much of our civil society. And by the way, it's going to run out. So we're not doing ourselves a favour by continuing that kind of a transportation and energy system.
