Keen Arrows

Energy and World Terror

This entry was posted on 8/26/2006 6:59 AM and is filed under US Politics,Energy.

Marjorie Mazel Hecht asserts that I'm wrong to blame Carter for icing the breeder reactor, here. Maybe so, but there is plenty of blame to assign to both Democrats and Republicans who have allowed America, not just the American embassy in Iran in '79, to be held hostage by underpinning, with Europe, the economies of states nurturing terrorists.

Googling, I find estimates here that US Oil consumption in 2005 was almost 22 million barrels per day, 40% domestic, 60% imported. See also here. (For an older but interesting detailed third-party consumption analysis and more, see here.) 11 points to 13 points of the 60 import points come from the Persian Gulf. Ball-parking an average of $50/barrel, we import over 960 million barrels per year thus transfer about $50 billion annually to Persian Gulf countries, a tidy sum to lay upon a region where most inhabitants know us as the Great Satan. Estimating the combined population of Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran (the last three being the most populated) at just over 125 million, our cash flow to the region equates to almost $400 each year to every living soul there. But private business and individuals aren't harvesting the money in the Persian Gulf. Half of the top 50 oil companies worldwide are fully- or majority-owned government companies, so the wealth flows from oil to individuals and families like those listed below, though not one is listed by Forbes as having made his fortune in oil.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Tala Alsaud, Saudi Arabia, worth $20 billion.
Nasser Al-Kharafi, Kuwait, worth $12.4 billion.
Mohammed Al Amoudi, Saudi Arabia, worth $6.9 billion.
Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, UAE, worth $6.9 billion.
Saleh Kamel, Saudi Arabia, worth $5.0 billion.
Saad Hariri, Saudi Arabia, worth $4.1 billion
Abdullah Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia, worth $3.8 billion
Khalid Bin Mahfouz, Saudi Arabia, worth $3.2 billion
Ayman Hariri, Saudi Arabia, worth $2.7 billion
Khalaf Al Habtoor, UAE, worth $2.3 billion
Mohammed Al Issa, Saudi Arabia, worth $2.3 billion
Mphammed Al Rajhi, Saudi Arabia, worth $2.1 billion

The list goes on, but note from the above that Saudis, who teach jihad and intolerance (eighth graders learn, for example, to equate Jews with apes and Christians with swine) in their public schools, seem to be doing pretty well. There are doubtless millions of Muslims on earth who do not subscribe to jihad and "death to America" but these, I submit, are the radicals in their faith, for jihad is at the core of Islam...

"The one who says 'we should fight against terrorism,' he is fighting against Islam."

...and jihad is an essential part of the Qur'an.

Our (and Western Europe's) aggregate trillions for oil to the Persian Gulf over decades have made billionaires of our enemies and funded armament, education, propaganda and violent action in Islamic terrorism throughout the world.