Misdirected Outrage

Saudi Arabia has pledged $92 million to Hamas and Iran has pledged $50 million. Other Gulf States, worried that Iran will become the Palestinians’ main backer, are quietly investigating sending money to the Hamas government; our friend Qatar has put up $20 million. For years Saudi Arabia has been funding the export of radical Wahabi ideology to Egypt, Pakistan and the U.S. (where they fund more than 80 percent of mosques and Islamic schools).

Saudi Arabia has pledged $92 million to Hamas and Iran has pledged $50 million. Other Gulf States, worried that Iran will become the Palestinians’ main backer, are quietly investigating sending money to the Hamas government; our friend Qatar has put up $20 million. For years Saudi Arabia has been funding the export of radical Wahabi ideology to Egypt, Pakistan and the U.S. (where they fund more than 80 percent of mosques and Islamic schools). Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terror – Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Shi’ite terror groups in Iraq and close relations with Syria. The Associated Press reports that Iran has taken possession – for cash, of course – of North Korean missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and reach Europe.

Who’s money are they spending? Yours.

The price of gas is high and consumers are angry. But when our elected representatives stage press conferences near gas stations and call for investigations of oil company collusion over prices they are pandering and their outrage is deliberately misplaced and cynical. We don’t like gas prices and we’re not crazy about oil company profits, but $0.09/gallon in the hands of Exxon (or the $0.18/gallon in taxes the U.S. government rakes in) doesn’t foster international jihad or threaten the world with nuclear annihilation. The real money is going to the bad guys.

The crucial fact about oil is that worldwide demand is up 3.3 percent over a year ago and supplies have not increased. The first crucial fact about the U.S. is that we spend billions of dollars and the precious blood of our soldiers to defend the oil producers and lines of supply because we need oil, but the rest of the world spends nothing to defend the oil it needs. The asymmetry is political, economic and military. The second crucial fact about the U.S. is that Congress and the Administration have been abysmal in explaining this to the American public and promoting the accelerated use of alternative forms of energy as a matter of national security policy. Somewhere in our collective consciousness, though, Americans know it. In a recent NBC-WSJ poll, Congress’s approval rating was a dismal 22 percent and the President was hovering around 36 percent.

Nuclear power, domestic exploration and drilling, clean coal, natural gas, hydrogen, biofuels, wind, solar and hydropower are alternatives to imported oil. With proper leadership and market incentives, the 7 percent increase in Exxon-Mobil’s profits over last year can be used to explore, improve and exploit all of them. Taxing away “windfall” profits will put more money in the government’s hands, but the government isn’t in the business of finding and exploiting energy resources. Energy companies are – and it is in our national security interest to have them do it and make them do it.

In the same NBC-WSJ poll, 77 percent of respondents said they were worried about oil prices and the economy. They would do better to worry about oil prices as they affect our security and our way of life, because at the moment, we are funding the people who hate us. Our government – Executive and Legislative, Republican, Democratic and the lone Socialist – is failing to take steps to stop it.