Foreign Policy Considerations

Foreign policy is difficult at best. Any student of history is aware of this and the results of its failure and success. Any historian should note the law of unintended consequences where what for the time and for all appearances, was a highly successful policy sowed the seeds of future distress.

One thing seems evident to me. The more dependent a country is upon raw materials or some other requirement of a particular region or country, the more difficult relations can be.

We have now a global economy. But whether 3-M or Coke has a bad year in Europe is not going to damage significantly the overall U.S. economy. But a disruption of oil is another matter.

We cannot become completely independent on the raw materials we need. We could if we put our minds to it, improve out situation in regard to the most important things.
Energy out weighs everything else at this point in time. First we have to win back the country from the idealists who can't accept reality. We have huge reserves of coal. We have the capability to develop vast amounts of nuclear energy. We have huge oil reserves in Alaska and off shore, if we would tap them. Americans too, might have to trade their SUV's in for a compact or fuel efficiency auto. Hybrids could save tremendous amounts of fuel. Our real pinch point in petroleum for autos is refining. We haven't built a new refinery in years because of the huge costs associated with over-regulation and saftey concerns.

If we were not so dependent on Mid-east oil would our policy be different? I don't know but I know we would have more options.