The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 588
If the Saudi government does nothing more than provide financial assistance
(welfare) to Saudis citizens as social improvement - which they do in very large
numbers - and some of those men who fall within Saudi Arabia’s extremely high
unemployment rate decide to better their existence (in this world or the next) by
choosing to commit a terrorist act in the name of Allah, we should not be helping
the Saudis to keep these people alive. If the Saudi government uses some of
the vast amounts of money that they receive from oil to fund school programs
that teach their kids that it is their duty as Muslims to kill the infidels (non-Muslims), I say its insanity to participate in funding those programs – which is what
we do every time we buy a gallon of gasoline. As I wrote earlier, I don’t care
what someone wants to believe in; I don’t care how they worship, and I don’t
even care if they teach their children that it’s okay to kill me and my family, but
I don’t want to keep paying for that.
The Saudis aren’t even the worst of the bad guys; some of the biggest oil-producing nations want America destroyed, and they make no bones about it. The
fact they might be living in high style because of our use of their product doesn’t
damper their criticism of our way of life and their overt support of terrorism
against us.
While I’m on this point, Bryce states that we shouldn’t worry about the really evil
oil-producing nations since we can refuse to buy their oil. This is an absurd point
because as Bryce acknowledges elsewhere, the oil industry is a global industry.
If we choose to not import oil from Iran, for example, it doesn’t mean that we
don’t need the oil. So the oil has to come from somewhere else. Then another
country that doesn’t have the same problem with Iran simply fills in their need
with Iranian oil. And since it is all priced according to a global market, not local,
the Iranians still get the same price for their oil whether we like it or not. They
are not harmed.
To make matters worse, we are using Iranian oil regardless of what our leaders
tell us. Some will get shipped to a middle-man country before us, relabeled, and
then shipped to America. Some of this oil even comes to us as if it was “North
American” oil from Canada.
Regardless of whether a particular act of terrorism was funded for $1 million or
$1 thousand, if we got rid of relying on “global oil” we wouldn’t have to put on a
happy face and turn our heads away from holding the right people responsible.
We wouldn’t have to lie back and learn to love the rape.
My understanding is that Robert Bryce has children, as well as a wife. I say
shame to him for putting his own family at risk just because he received a
