I am not so sure about that. My humble opinion - take it for what it is worth - is that a person who really understands the source of terrorism would make energy policy reform his top priority. The difference between our enemy being a bunch of ignorant, provincial goat herders, and an enemy with global reach and sophisticated in modern technology, comes down to how much money they have to spend to pursue their war against us. The amount of money they have to spend, in turn, is directly related to how much we pay them for their oil. By exploiting domestic energy resources and developing new nuclear power plants, we could drive our enemies to the brink of defeat without needing to fire a shot, as well as being able to then wash our hands of a whole host of unpleasant foreign entanglements that are currently required only because of the need to secure energy supplies.
he does. He’s for nuclear power. He wants to move the world away from oil.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/13bc1d97-4ca5-49dd-9805-1297872571ed.htm
Al Qaeda must revel in the irony that America is effectively helping to fund both sides of the war they caused. As we sacrifice blood and treasure, some of our gas dollars flow to the fanatics who build the bombs, hatch the plots, and carry out attacks on our soldiers and citizens. Iran made over $45 billion from oil sales in 2005, and it is the number one state sponsor of terrorism.
The transfer of American wealth to the Middle East helps sustain the conditions on which terrorists prey. Some of the most oil-rich nations are the most stagnant societies on earth. As long as petro-dollars flow freely to them those regimes have little incentive to open their politics and economies so that all their people may benefit from their countries’ natural wealth. The Middle East’s example is spreading to our own hemisphere. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is using his country’s oil revenues to establish a dictatorship, bully his neighbors and succeed Castro as Latin America’s leading antagonist of the United States. The politics of oil impede the global progress of our values, and restrains governments from acting on the most basic impulses of human decency. There is only one reason China has opposed sanctions to pressure Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur: China needs Sudan’s oil.