2007
Soap Box Archives
Conundrum
It's a well-known and sorry fact that the U.S.A. is dependent
on some of our deadliest enemies for the oil which runs our
cars, heats our homes, lights our streets, flies our planes
and just generally fuels our economy.
It is also a well-known and sorry fact that the U.S.A. has enough
fossil fuel under our lands and oceans that we don't have to
be dependent on any foreign country for our energy sources and
we just won't drill for it.
Sometimes I think this country is going crazy I mean, to ship
oil thousands of miles after buying it from people who would
like nothing better than killing every man woman and child in
this nation in my book is ridiculous, irresponsible and deadly
dangerous.
And what is the reason we haven't gotten the oil out of our
native soil so we don't have to put our collective heads in
the lion's mouth?
The answer is a small but rabid bunch of people who call themselves
environmentalists who actually think that drilling for oil would
destroy the environment. Funny thing is, we¹ve been getting
oil out of the earth for a hundred years and we haven't destroyed
it yet.
In fact, I seriously doubt that if in all the years American
companies have been harvesting oil if they've done as much damage
to the world's environment as Saddam Hussein did in the few
weeks after the first Gulf War when he set fire to Kuwaiti oil
wells and opened valves and drained unknown thousands of barrels
of raw petroleum into the Persian Gulf.
There's no doubt that American companies have through greed
and carelessness acted irresponsibly and hurt the ecology of
the areas they worked in but the truth of the matter is that
it doesn't have to be that way. With all the new
technology oil can be harvested safely and efficiently.
But we all want to see the day when we are no longer dependent
on fossil fuels at all no matter where they come from. But being
pragmatic about it, until that day comes we're going to have
to have petroleum products and getting them from our enemies
from a part of the world that is apt to blow up at any time
is tantamount to insanity, especially when we don¹t have
to.
As Iran comes closer to having a nuclear bomb and Israel simply
can't afford to let it happen the Middle East becomes an even
more dangerous and volatile place. The flow of oil from the
Persian Gulf could be cut off in just one day's time, crippling
the economies of the oil dependent nations of the world and
there is absolutely no reason why America would have to be one
of them, if we'd just come to our senses before it's too late.
The only thing the terrorist states have is oil and if we'd
just wise up and produce and refine our own we could sit back
and thumb our noses at them while we increase our production
of cleaner renewable alternative fuels.
Why do we always have to wait until the cow is a mile down the
road before we get around to locking the barn door? We're going
to have to face the loss of oil from the Middle East sooner
or later, why not sooner?
Pray for our troops.
What do you think?
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
June 11, 2007
