Most of us are aware that America pays for terrorism, but we don't like to
think about it. Every time we buy gasoline, part of every tank to fill up the
SUV goes to Hezbollah, Al-Qaida, and any other terrorist group that is being
covertly financed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Our oil companies profit from the
same $75 a barrel for crude oil that we pay to the Arabs, so they get a piece of
the terrorist action, too. If we somehow get the new Iraqi government to
survive, it will funnel its oil reserves to the same causes, since ironically
enough, the power players in Iraq are Shi'ites, the sect that controls both Iran
and Hezbollah. This has become a classic case of the snake biting its tail.
The latest installment has gotten even more complicated and ironical.
Hezbollah, we are told, is winning new friends in Lebanon by aiding the
victims of war and becoming a major party in rebuilding local devastation. So
instead of being hurt by Israel's invasion, Hezbollah is helped. And the
Lebanese government, far form joining in the U.N. resolution to take away
Hezbollah's weapons, calls the group its only defense against Israel. This isn't
an outcome the U.S. wanted, but somewhere in the whole mess companies like
Haliburton will no doubt bid for contracts to rebuild highways and other parts
of Lebanon's crushed infrastructure.
The snake keeps biting its tail
because of money. With the price of oil at all-time highs, a single country like
Saudi Arabia got a windfall of over $800 billion in excess profits from the U.S.
last year. That pays for a lot of anti-Americanism when those dollars find their
way into extremist hands. Can we do anything to stop it? War hasn't worked. Our
huge military budget of $441 billion hasn't worked, even though it's more than
the next 16 countries in the world combined. Our dependence on Arab oil has
trumped the fact that we are supposed to be the world's only
superpower.
The world's real superpower is oil. If that's true, then the
U.S. needs to lead the world in disarmament and a serious attempt to stop
profiting form arms deals and war-making in every guise. Our leaders need to
abandon the rhetoric of militarism entirely. We are waging war against ourselves
at $75 a barrel, encouraging fiascos like the destruction of Lebanon, and at the
same time insuring that the world-wide jihad grows fat on our money.
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