Oil Addiction

I recently read part of a book, written by a Christian fundamentalist who is both anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic. This book disturbed me to the point that I took it back to the library without writing down the title or the author (or finishing the book). 

One thing that he may be right about is the fact that the Middle East countries are supplying the United States with the major portion of our oil supply, upon which we are extremely dependent.  He points out that Saudi Arabia is using some of the money they make from selling us oil to establish Islamic studies in several of our major universities.  He states that some European countries now have rather large Muslim populations, large enough that they may not be “minorities”.  He also points out that the Muslim population in the United States is getting to be “significant”.  He declares that perhaps as much as 25% of the Muslims in the U.S. and Europe are militant anti-Christian, particularly the younger generation.  The ultimate goal, of course, is to make the major countries of the world “Islamic”, which includes all of Europe and the United States.  Where do India and China fit into this plan?  I do not know! 

If the price of oil, which is now more than $100 a barrel, goes to $300, $400, or $500 a barrel, reincarnation and religion is going to be the least of our worries in Europe and the U.S.A.  The United States consumes 21 million barrels of oil each day of which 14 million barrels is imported, primarily from Islamic controlled countries in the Middle East.  If the price goes out of sight, or Middle East production is drastically cut, or diverted to other countries, the comfortable Western economies are going to be a disaster in progress; a depression which will make the current economic situation look like a picnic in the park.  The question is not “IF”, but “WHEN”?  This whole nation, in fact the whole world, seems to be in complete denial to this addiction.

This same author states that there are 192 nations on the planet, all of them oil-addicted, who will be competing for oil reserves when those reserves have reached their peak and production starts to decrease.  As he puts it, the world is consuming almost 100% of crude production right now, which means that the production margin is non-existent.  The reserves in the North American continent are relatively insignificant and not nearly as large as the reserves in the Middle East.  Today, in the U.S., we are only producing one-third of the oil that we consume each day.  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran have approximately 75% of the world’s known oil reserves.  At some point in time, China, India, or Russia may decide to compete with us for these reserves.

How can a country, whose economy is almost completely dependent upon consumption, compete with ambitious countries that are producing real goods?  The people in our government are almost completely obsessed with obtaining ideological power.  If we, as a people, are not in complete denial, what would you call it?  We are just standing here looking out over the river, swatting mosquitoes, while the bank is crumbling out from under our feet.