Osama bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia. Osama's family has lots of money--money they earned mainly by helping Saudi Arabia sell oil to Americans like you and me. At some point, his family gave lots of that money to Osama. Osama then became a terrorist. He used a good deal of his family's Saudi oil money to recruit, train, and enable other terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They killed lots of Americans with the money Osama's family gave him.
Of course, this is simplified, but there's no denying the root of threat. In 2007, Thomas Friedman, writing for the New York Times, explained:
Sometime after 9/11 -- an unprovoked mass murder perpetrated by 19 men, 15 of whom were Saudis -- green went geostrategic, as Americans started to realize we were financing both sides in the war on terrorism. We were financing the U.S. military with our tax dollars; and we were financing a transformation of Islam, in favor of its most intolerant strand, with our gasoline purchases.
It's no secret that our dependence on foreign oil is a huge threat to national security in that it both enables extremism and fuels global terrorism. On top of the fact that an unhealthy, smog-filled environment is bad in general, the vulnerability our thirst for oil creates at home is one of the chief reasons for the new fuel efficiency standards unveiled yesterday at the White House by President Obama. Said the President:
And that's why, in the next five years, we're seeking to raise fuel-economy standards to an industry average of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016, an increase of more than eight miles per gallon per vehicle. That's an unprecedented change, exceeding the demands of Congress and meeting the most stringent requirements sought by many of the environmental advocates represented here today.
As a result, we will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years. Just to give you a sense of magnitude, that's more oil than we imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya, and Nigeria combined.
Sounds good, right? Not to some. For reasons that elude me, self-designated troop supporters like Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck can't get it through their skulls that our reliance on foreign oil funds terrorism. Malkin complained:
Nobody in the White House is going to call the president's "mileage and pollution" plan what it is.
It's a $1,300 car tax. On the working class. On the middle class.
Ignoring for a moment the fact that over the course of a standard five-year car loan period, a person would save $2,800 in fuel costs, I'm continually blown away by the inability of these warmongering chickenhawks to sacrifice any little thing in the service of their country while the nation is at war--even when it's not really much of a sacrifice at all. But they can't do it. Our troops are fighting tooth and nail, every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all these whiners can do--with their overdeveloped senses of entitlement--is cry about not having access to cheap fuel for their gas guzzlers.
They'd rather keep sending America's troops on year-long tours to fight groups of Saudi-funded extremists instead of making any effort to cut the habit at home. And they're like this because it doesn't cost them anything. They've never been on the receiving end of where their gas money goes--like some of us have been--so they're not concerned with the consequences. This is a national security issue, and anyone who opposes an effort to cut back on the consumption of foreign oil is hindering American's fighting men and women.
For all his bawling on TV about how much he loves his country, you'd think a guy like Glenn Beck would be eager to do whatever is necessary to combat terrorism. Same for Malkin. But I guess they'd rather tell us we can have the money up front--money they'd eventually double--if we pry it from their cold dead hands. These are some real patriots, these two. And the troops surely appreciate it. Go slap another sticker on your Hummer H2, you parasites. Nah. I take that back. Make it a magnet. So you can remove it when you go out on Saturday night.
"The welcome mat for memoirs by veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom might never wear out so long as they write with the savvy of Brandon Friedman . . . Friedman's take is vivid, frank, precise and dramatic."--Military Times
"Add Brandon Friedman's The War I Always Wanted to the ranks of outstanding non-fiction produced by officers from elite combat units in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Always truthful, often excruciatingly so, The War I Always Wanted rises at numerous points to the level of literature."--Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire
"A Time To Lead confirms the rewarding benefits of military service at a time when such service is experiencing considerable strain. It also includes a comprehensive description of America's current national imperatives, which deserve serious consideration."--General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., former Secretary of State
"This is a primer on leadership forged in battle and by decades of experience. . .This isn't just a book; it's a manual for leading people and living a good life."--Barry McCaffrey, General, USA (ret.)
"Whip smart, sassy, with a mouth as foul as a sailor's, 28-year-old Sergeant Kayla Williams. . .tells what it's like to be a female soldier in Iraq."--Booklist
". . .echoes military memoirists from Julius Caesar to Ernie Pyle."--Publishers Weekly
". . .a shocking, on-the-ground view of one military woman's experience in Iraq."--Bookmarks Magazine
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