Oil and Jihad

By: Vernon Richards, author of ”Islam Undressed“

2005/04/01

Many are feeling a little peeved about the high cost of gasoline. Handing over more than two crisp 20 dollar bills to fill up the family van has severe impact to budgets and tempers. Some pundits suggest the government or big greedy oil companies are at fault. Liberals oft repeated claim that Bush policies trade blood for oil seem pretty silly right about now. We’ve spent the blood, but have not reaped cheap oil, so what’s the deal? When we dispassionately dig into the facts, it appears we are finally beginning to bump into the inevitable collision between increasing demand and dwindling supply. What we are witnessing is a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Neither side can yield, and the fallout of such collisions are difficult to predict. The American economy is a juggernaught greased more by cheap oil than any other natural resource, but the numbers suggest we are fairly quickly running out of cheap oil. There is increasing consumption in China, India, and the third world for existing ready reserves. Unfortunately, it appears that our power to compete with other economies for this precious recourse will continue to wane with the deterioration of the dollar, due in part by grossly under-funded Medicare and other social programs inflating the deficit. When over-spending and over-consumption are factored into our economy, it can only serve to weaken the real value of the dollar and compromise our position to compete for foreign oil. This translates to much higher cost per barrel. It should be noted that much of what we call the recent catastrophic increase in the cost of foreign oil has not been felt as harshly by economies based on euros, yens, rupees, rubbles, or other currencies not in free-fall.

From various reports concerning existing oil reserves and current consumption rates, several startling conclusions can easily be drawn. Politicians (liberal and conservative) and businessmen alike have no incentive to warn of these looming numbers, and the liberal media will continue to protect the public from these harsh facts in order to protect a social agenda heavily dependant on status quo. Since none of this will ever be reported by the media, it will be up to individuals to prepare the best they can for the coming energy struggles. The oil industry folks will undoubtedly continue to discount the problem, saying that oil not yet discovered will make up any shortfall. However, all the big pools in the US are already used up and it is becoming more and more difficult to both find and extract remaining domestic supplies. Even if we generously factor in significant quantities of undiscovered oil, still we can not avoid the reality of a rapidly declining national resource. Proved oil reserves are estimated at a trillion barrels, of which only 6% are in North America. Over 71% of global oil reserves are in the hands of Islamic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.

The consumption of oil in the US is 20 million barrels per day (mbd) of which 12 mbd is imported. This means we are currently burning 8 mbd of domestically produced oil per day, which translates to 3 billion barrels per year (bby). The best estimate of remaining reserves in the US is around 24 billion barrels. Therefore, we have approximately 8 years left of domestic oil at current rates of consumption. The spigot will not suddenly end, as there will be future finds as we continue to squeeze the last few drops from domestic supplies, but it is reasonable to expect that contributions from domestic supplies will quickly become negligible in about 8-10 years. Domestic supplies must drop from 40% today to 30%, 20%, and then less than 10% in a relatively short period of time. At that point, we will be completely at the mercy of foreign (Islamic) oil, which will have the vast majority of remaining reserves. The best estimate of world-wide oil reserves (1.2 trillion barrels) appears comforting until you realize that most non-Islamic reserves are locked up in oil sands/shale in Canada and South America. To recover this resource takes a lot of energy since the oil can only be released by a messy process of mining and raising the shale to a high temperature (by burning gas to heat up huge retorts). Unfortunately, gas reserves are insufficient and, indeed, unavailable to release significant amounts of useable oil locked up in the shale. This process of burning gas to obtain oil also does a number on the environment, and so environmental considerations may put the nail in the coffin of the idea of useable quantities of oil from shale.

It appears inevitable our kids and grandkids may soon be facing a world with comparatively tighter oil supplies and ever increasing competition for a dwindling resource. Today's two dollar a gallon oil cost may soon look like the good old days. In 10 years gasoline may cost anywhere between $8-$20 per gallon (in today’s dollar). Only the wealthy will sport around the countryside in SUV's, and few teenagers will enjoy the rite of passage of crusing main street. Our popular culture and mobile way of life, based as it is on cheap and ready gasoline, must then morph into something else. As oil-based infrastructure contracts, it is also inevitable that all production based on it will wane, resulting in further economic trauma. No longer will kids hop in the car to drive 300 yards to the strip mall. With every trip costing significantly more to families with dwindling spending power, retail sails and the service industry will also suffer.

All the while Islam, by its very nature, remains in permanent competition with other civilizations. The true Islamic concept of peace goes something like this: “Peace comes through submission to Muhammad and his concept of Allah” (i.e. Islam). As such the Islamic concept of peace, meaning making the whole world Muslim, is actually a mandate for war. It was inevitable and unavoidable that the current conflict would eventually reach our borders, and so it has. If we are willing to accept our lot and protect our present and future nation, major changes will be needed in all aspects of our lives. The current Jihad is being funded primarily by each of us every time we pay to fill our cars. In effect, we are funding our own demise, addicted as we are on Arabian oil. Change is not easy, but as Thomas Jefferson once said; “A little revolution every now and then is a good thing, it clears the atmosphere”. Jihad is not going away on its own, it needs to be helped. An awakening and ‘Cultural Revolution’ must first take place here before we can successfully commit to the task at hand. The air must be cleared and hands untied to be able to strike with the kind of lethality required to finish the ugly task and put it behind us. The set of changes and actions that could define victory are the responsibility of our military and political leaders, but require the full support and participation of every citizen and the economy. The first thing to be done is to assign an all new $10/bbl on foreign oil to drive down demand and to fund the following:

Require (not allow, …require!), responsible drilling and development of oil reserves in Alaska, offshore, and elsewhere.
Immediately begin building fission nuclear reactors on a large scale. Nuclear power plants are much less polluting anyway.
Require and support new and expanded Coal and Uranium production.
Seriously invest in fusion research with the goal of harnessing the power of the hydrogen molecule to generate unlimited electrical power.
Create more incentives for oil/gas conservation like car pooling, higher efficiency engines, braking regeneration/conservation, lighter/stronger vehicles, smaller efficient engines, more efficient methods of mass transit. More efficient commercial transportation, capturing of solar/wind/water potential, etc ect.
Greatly expand NASA, but change the organizations paradigm to fund lunar extraction of He-3 to facilitate the eventual replacement of oil. NASA needs to shift from a tax-payer funded to a revenue generating entity. A single Shuttle load of Helium-3 would supply the countries energy needs for a year.

Time is shorter than we all think. The answer to all these serious problems takes the politically incorrect form of nuclear energy. Energy policy needs to be thought of in terms of terrorist funding, as the two are in fact two sides of the same coin. Every dollar not sent to the Islamic world means one less bullet that can be bought to kill our sons. Uranium/tritium fusion, Helium-3/Deuterium fusion, could provide not only base electrical power requirements to fuel industrial production, but also could release oil from shale and generate huge quantities of hydrogen from simple water (a resource which covers four fifths of the planet). Unfortunately, it appears the current energy crisis will hit very hard much sooner than it will take for enlightenment to take hold and a nuclear infrastructure to be prepared to meet the looming shortcomings. To some, the world will ever be flat, and those must be dragged into reality kicking and screaming. Perhaps when there is no outlet to plug in the hairdryer, the X-box, the microwave, a new thought might occur to anti-nuclear 'activists'. When the economic crisis relating to oil hits full stride, will eco-terrorists still dictate energy policy through activist judges and tree-hugging politicians? At some point the pain will reach a threshold of intolerance, and practical considerations will dictate war of some kind against anti-human/anti-economic/pro-natural extremists who stand in the way of prosperity (and freedom). But for now, it seems all one can do is watch the circus with trepidation.