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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (381060)	4/29/2008 11:42:26 AM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 1584948

You may have missed it, but the political will to reduce oil usage exists every where except in the US, China and India. Of course, they are doing it mostly for climate reasons, whereas, I think our most pressing reasons that would resonate with both sides of the aisle are more for national and economic security reasons. The fact is that when the US decides to take a leadership role in something this big, most other countries follow. If we were able to become energy independent with all of our technologies and know-how, I would bet my house, other countries would clamor to see how we did it so they could do it themselves. That would lead to collapsing oil prices, most assuredly, but it will also lead to collapsing demand, which will relegate the Middle East to a much reduced power, which is where we want them. We don't want M.E. potentates with extra disposable income, because we know that it ends up in the wrong hands. Now, even if I'm wrong about how this will impact the M.E., then at the very least it will reduce the M.E. strategic importance to the U.S. If we don't need their oil, then we won't spend hundreds of billions on military adventures over there. For example, we don't care about what happens in Darfur, so we've been reluctant to act over there, which means we haven't spent money on that issue. Same goes with the M.E. If we put ourselves in a position where we don't have to care, then that will save us hundreds of billions and perhaps trillions of dollars, if the spending on the Iraq war is any indication.