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Edited by Christian Lowe | Contact

Stop Funding America's Enemies

Imagine if, in the middle of World War II, the U.S. government and its people gave Hitler billions of dollars, to train troops and build new weapons. Sounds impossible, right? But that's more or less the situation we find ourselves in today, former CIA director Jim Woolsey recently told the Naval Postgraduate School.

2002146.jpgThe U.S. is in the opening stages of a "Long War" with Islamic extremists. And these adversaries -- whether they're found in madrassas in Riyadh or the government in Tehran -- are funded, in so small part, by oil revenue. Petrodollars go, more or less directly, to training radicals. Petrodollars get funneled to those who make and plant bombs.

"Except for our own Civil War," Woolsey notes, "this is the only war that we have fought where we are paying for both sides. We pay Saudi Arabia $160 billion for its oil, and $3 or $4 billion of that goes to the Wahhabis, who teach children to hate. We are paying for these terrorists with our SUVs."

And we are paying for them with our tanks, our Bradleys, and our fighter jets, observes Defense Technology International, which has a special issue out on "The Military and the End of Oil." In 2004, the U.S. military gobbled up 400,000 barrel of fuel a day, at cost of $6.7 billion. A year later, those costs had climbed to $8.8 billion. In 2006, the price tag is expect to total $10 billion.

"Meanwhile, advanced green technologies like hybrid drive vehicles [despite their limitations] offer both fuel economy and stealth benefits in combat, a significant plus in the urban warfare scenarios that appear to be such a big part of future wars," writes Joe Katzman, who's been all over this issue.

The truth is that the military can't live without fuel, but every gallon of it is both a logistics burden and a financial burden... Now add the fact that diversified "green infrastructure" lowers vulnerability to the kind of "system disruption" attacks one sees in Iraq, and the military/security benefits become compelling.

It sure does. Throughout the military today, there are lots and lots of individual R&D efforts underway to find alternatives to funding our enemies. But a collection of engineering projects is not enough. If we're serious about fighting this Long War, breaking the military's addiction to oil has to become a top priority.

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Posted by: aoc gold at May 27, 2008 09:20 PM


We also fund by International aid, theyre "non profits" alone.
SO CUT Funds in all directions.
Quit bowing to the Saudi princes & lets Drill for more OIL & then expand Alt Fuels R&D.
IE Hybrid M1A2 Abhrams tanks, Fuel cell N subs etc.
ALL doable.
Or face another worse OPEC crunch from 1970s?

Posted by: stephen russell at January 2, 2008 09:40 AM


i stopped reading when it said this is the only war where america has played both sides. also that thing about funding hitler? we sold them patented goods (by the rockefellars) that they absolutely needed in order to fight their war, as well as helped set up their communications systems, their veichles had ford engines in them, etc...

Posted by: haha... at August 1, 2007 03:50 PM


Yoda should say "Racket war is! and Hell too war is" and that the CIA made Usama into what he is today and keeps him free and the Company always played both sides of every war and profited from it too i.e. Drugs ALA north with help from the crips and bloods! Coke is it Baby! Jimbo please put on the hooded robe for me and use the force, please!

Posted by: Jaye at June 8, 2006 06:15 PM


Robot.Economist:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901769.html

I recently saw a documentary about a Wahabi (Saudi) funded madrassa in Indonesia that had portraits of Bin Laden on the wall.

One must appreciate that the goals of an enemy are simple expressed in their ideology; in our times that ideology it isn't Islam. It is one that is trying to mobilize islam, it is comparable to fascism because it is an ideology that is trying to impose its own world view to the excusion of all others. The ideology says that Jews, Christians and anyone who is not a muslim is an infidel who is well below the status of true believers. The goal is comparable to the lebensraum goal.

All the evidence shows that the people behind the terror believe that they are creating a better world in which a group of wise scholars will have final say over the affairs of mankind. It is a view of the world that is fundamentally incompatible with the inclusive multiculturalist consensus of virtually all modern nations. In some form, way or shape such inclusive societies even exist in modern Russia and China.

It is terribly hard for most of us to accept that such narrow minded people as those who support islamic fundamentalism exist but they do exist and we pay them when we fill up our cars. There is no contesting that.

If anyone believes the USA, Israel, or the Nato countries are ruthless and that our (western) inhumanity is any justification for terror, let's not forget that 200.000 civilian muslems were slaughtered by Russian artillery in Chechnya and that at this very moment, and every day, hundreds of people are being killed by Islamic Janjaweed militia in Darfur; possibly 500 on an average day. It pays to count the bodies because when you count people you see the perspective between abu graib, Haditha, and Grozny or Darfur. The outrage against the west is misplaced and is part of a propaganda war that we are thorougly ill equipped to wage efficiently, it is one that by many indicators we are losing. The west is not intentionally murdering people but thats exactly what happened in Grozny and is happening, tonight, in Darfur.

Western nations are corrupt enough, but at this time at least we get to vote, we have consensus, we can buy Das Kapital and we can buy the Koran. And read it, and express our opinion. God forbid we loose this war and loose that freedom.

Noah and you guys you are patriots of freedom, our military and security apparatus needs to be spanked day in day out so they can do what they are supposed to do. I salute and thank you for that.

Posted by: jvd70 at June 7, 2006 09:27 PM


lester before spitting out stereotype comments and to the rest of you talking about the problem America and the Middle East are facing, think again.
Put yourself in the place of an Iraqi or Afghani and get members of your loved ones killed and have massacres like Haditha and abu gharib and think again

Posted by: a word of truth at May 31, 2006 02:15 PM


TBV:

Switching from one oil-producing country to another would be the shortest of short-term fixes. The real solution is to find alternate means for producing power.

nms

Posted by: Noah Shachtman at May 30, 2006 07:41 AM


If only it were so simple! Unfortunately the nature of commodity markets is such that refusing to buy from one source means other buyers go there instead, and nothing changes.

Cranky- if you check the news (and certainly the Congressional Record) you'll find that Congress granted all the required authority to the President well before Iraq was invaded. War hasn't been declared since WWII because a literal declaration of war legally invokes a number of emergency measures which would only get in the way. Instead it is simpler and more effective to grant the same Presidential authority under other terms, such as was done in 2001 and again in before Iraq. Not that I'm so naive as to believe you'll be satisfied with this. I'm not; half the country seems to prefer the Ostrich Principle anyway.

Posted by: TrustButVerify at May 30, 2006 05:19 AM


Colombia is a another example of a "war" where we fund both sides.

Posted by: boz at May 28, 2006 03:05 PM


One way or another America cannot support it's own oil addiction. We do not have the production capability, and we never will again as long as Americans are used to such low gas prices, drive so much and have absurdly large vehicles that carry only one person or sound like a delivery truck. (Cummins Turbo-Diesel, you know what I'm talking about!)

You can try for Fischer Tropsch but it'll push things to maybe...80 a barrel or more, same with tar sands. If prices go up enough or the outside supply drops to the point that it raises prices enough, the companies will begin going for tar sands. What we should do first is prioritize research funds into lowering the costs of tar sands to get us out of the Middle East as much as possible (or reduce our dependence) or at least silence the "no blood for oil" types. Secondly we should pursue alternatives to the ICE engine and begin the longterm investments /NOW/.

Posted by: Charles at May 28, 2006 12:20 PM


islam and "the west" are like oil and water. We need a strict policy of total isolation from the middle east INCLUDING israel. ONLY way to prevent another 9/11.

Posted by: lester1/2jr at May 28, 2006 11:07 AM


The addiction to oil will not end overnight. I'm for alternative methods, but it might also be nice if we could drill for oil in our own country!

Posted by: CP at May 28, 2006 01:12 AM


Is Woolsy AKA Yoda suggesting America nuke Saudi Arabia instead of Iran? I can live with that! Way to go Jimbo! Peace!

Posted by: Jaye at May 27, 2006 09:13 AM


So now we are in a "Long War", eh? Could you remind me when this war was declared by Congress? When it was discussed in a presidential campaign or included as a plank in a presidental platform? Who exactly are we fighting? How will we know when this war is over?

And will we get our Constitution back when the "Long War" is over?

Is it possible - just possible - there there is some segment of American society that is pathologically hardwired to fight someone, anyone, at all times? And that if there is no real enemy to fight must create one? I mean, terrorists are bad news, but the British and Spanish, among others, have managed to contain and control terrorist movements for many years without fighting a "Long War" or destroying their society.

Cranky

Posted by: Cranky Observer at May 27, 2006 09:00 AM


You know, Henry Ford DID sell tank engines to the Germans.

Posted by: Brian at May 26, 2006 09:20 PM


Your article is pretty one dimensional - we trade with the Middle East, therefore, we support terrorism. So when we trade with China, we're only fueling the rise of a military competitor? It may appear pretty ironic, but it is not that simple.

One thing is for certain, the kind of nationalist rhetoric thrown about in your article helps no one. Especially not the brave men and women of our armed services.

Posted by: Robot.Economist at May 26, 2006 03:47 PM


Do'h! Of course, JJ. Fixed.

Posted by: Noah Shachtman at May 26, 2006 03:40 PM


It's Naval Postgraduate School, not National.

Posted by: JJ at May 26, 2006 01:56 PM


Do as the Germans did in WWII, Coal Oil. Plenty of coal in North America.

Posted by: MD at May 26, 2006 01:36 PM


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