The Califate has started.

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Why is the US protecting Western Europe?
I can't tell if your serious or not, but why do you think we need a base there in order to protect them?

Many Many reasons. The best and shortest is that it is in teh USA's Financial Interest to have a Europe that isnt dominated/occupied by the Soviets.

 

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Since we've not had to worry about the "Evil Empire" invasion for a couple decades, what purpose do they really serve?

a Balance of Power in Europe

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

Many Many reasons. The best and shortest is that it is in teh USA's Financial Interest to have a Europe that isnt dominated/occupied by the Soviets.

I don't think the Soviets are capable of dominating much of anything. I don't think the military should be used to protect economic interests anyways, they should only be used to protect people's lives.

Also, why do we need a base there in order to protect western europe? We have missiles that can travel the thousands of miles in under an hour, and the most powerful navy in the history of the planet..... but we need troops on the ground there? Beware the military industrial complex.

 

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I don't think the Soviets are capable of dominating much of anything. I don't think the military should be used to protect economic interests anyways, they should only be used to protect people's lives.

Also, why do we need a base there in order to protect western europe? We have missiles that can travel the thousands of miles in under an hour, and the most powerful navy in the history of the planet..... but we need troops on the ground there? Beware the military industrial complex.

If you don't think the USA uses it's armed forces to protect Economic Interests you are very sadly mistaken

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

If you don't think the USA uses it's armed forces to protect Economic Interests you are very sadly mistaken

I think the USA does a lot of things it shouldn't do. That doesn't mean I won't continue to be against it. Do you support the US using military force to better our economic interests?

 

[ORLY!?!]

1. 80% of the worlds oil flows thru the Persian Gulf, not the Red Sea. Egypt does not border the Persian Gulf, hence the instability in the country will have no effect on the oil flowing through there.

Did a little fact checking, and found out that it does go through the red sea. Then it crosses the Suez canal, which lays within Egypt. Dug in November 1869, and is a crossing canal that passes along gas, crude and container ships.

80% of the worlds gas/ crude crosses the red sea and into the Suez. Not to mention the amount of trade ships.

If this gets out of hand, we can see a halt of gas in the canal. A civil war would do it. They would have to travel around Africa and pass the Horn off to its destination. This will make the barrel of oil price sky rocket. Not good, not good at all.

Suez Canal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[moreluck]

We wouldn't have to worry about any fuel if we just developed our own or said yes to the pipeline.

 

[ORLY!?!]

We wouldn't have to worry about any fuel if we just developed our own or said yes to the pipeline.

Or drill ourselves, we are sitting atop a lot of it.

 

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I think the USA does a lot of things it shouldn't do. That doesn't mean I won't continue to be against it. Do you support the US using military force to better our economic interests?

It dosent matter if I support it or not.The fact remains that the US uses military force to protect it's interests. Of course it will never be sold to the public that way. It will be (has been) sold as The US will be protecting freedoms,democracy and preventing terrorists from using WMD's against innocent people and if some of the populace is against it their patriotism will be challenged.
Saying we are going to war over Oil would be a hard sell lol

 

[Babagounj]

Yes we have plenty of oil .
But the major drawback is the lack of working refineries .

 

[ORLY!?!]

Yes we have plenty of oil .
But the major drawback is the lack of working refineries .

We can have plenty, yet it will run out and the other. The refineries are a joke, and often a cause of gas price increase. I dont even think they have made a new one in like 20 some years. And shutting one down for maintenance drives up the cost of gas as well.

In the first season of the walking dead. The scientist has a great quote " The world runs on fossil fuel, how dumb is that! ". Its true, we run on a system that will end up killing us in the long run.

 

[soberups]

We wouldn't have to worry about any fuel if we just developed our own or said yes to the pipeline.

Or drill ourselves, we are sitting atop a lot of it.

Trying to solve our problems by drilling here makes about as much sense as a heroin addict trying to solve his problem by tearing out all the carpeting and floors of his home in order to find enough residue to get high one more time. We need to wean ourselves off of oil entirely because it is a finite resouce and once its gone its gone for good.

 

[moreluck]

Thank goodness I'm already in my mid 60's......I will never drive anything but an internal combustion engine driven vehicle and running on gas..

So far, I don't see the electric charging stations going in every gas station in the country.

 

[soberups]

Thank goodness I'm already in my mid 60's......I will never drive anything but an internal combustion engine driven vehicle and running on gas..

So far, I don't see the electric charging stations going in every gas station in the country.

Did you ever stop to think about whether or not your grandchildren and great grandchildren will have any oil left in 50 years?

I dont know where you live but in my little bitty town of 20,000 people there are at least 10 places to charge an electric car. My next car will be an electric one, and my long term goal is to only burn gasoline when I need my truck for hauling something too big to fit in my electric car or when we drive my wifes 55 MPG Prius on a long trip. The internal combustion engine is today what pay phones were 20 years ago...obsolete technology on the verge of extinction.

 

[BrownArmy]

My mother is a nurse...

Her view is that we should skip the military-industrial complex notion of securing oil.

Point being, oil is going to run out (not disputed), and we're wasting the oil on running our cars.

Fact is, we need the oil for other, very important things, like the derived plastics needed for life-saving devices.

So, yeah, let's bankrupt our own country in order to fight in other countries so we can sell them 'democracy' (please).

We're really there to protect our OIL interests.

Let's get less interested in OIL.

Like my mama says, we actually need to save some of the OIL for the things that can't be made without OIL, like all the neat plastic things they'll stick you with when you're dying in the hospital.

 

[DriveInDriveOut]

My mother is a nurse... Her view is that we should skip the military-industrial complex notion of securing oil. Point being, oil is going to run out (not disputed), and we're wasting the oil on running our cars. Fact is, we need the oil for other, very important things, like the derived plastics needed for life-saving devices. So, yeah, let's bankrupt our own country in order to fight in other countries so we can sell them 'democracy' (please). We're really there to protect our OIL interests. Let's get less interested in OIL. Like my mama says, we actually need to save some of the OIL for the things that can't be made without OIL, like all the neat plastic things they'll stick you with when you're dying in the hospital.

We need to fight wars for oil, so that we can keep fueling our tanks and Humvees silly. Wait.... never mind.

 

[ORLY!?!]

Trying to solve our problems by drilling here makes about as much sense as a heroin addict trying to solve his problem by tearing out all the carpeting and floors of his home in order to find enough residue to get high one more time. We need to wean ourselves off of oil entirely because it is a finite resouce and once its gone its gone for good.

We need oil for many things in todays world. Your T.V is made of a percentage of it. The computer and keyboard you type that reply with has it. The medicines, cosmetics, tires and even asphalt has oil in them. The soles of your shoes, lube for machines and cars and so on and on. If it moves, has working parts, it needs oil. The guns you and I own, need oil to move effieciently.

I as well, agree we need to get off of oil. But thers too many uses for it to have go away for atlease another 100 years. We can make oil thats a synthetic, but it would have too few uses to trump.

As for drilling, uh yea, no brainer on that one. Theres oil almost everywhere in the US. The Gulf of Mexico has alot. Alaska, Texas and off both coasts of our country. And they keep finding it, there was a story that speculators have detected oil even in the north easter parts of the US. Secondly, it would create good well paying jobs for people. Instead of relying foreign compaines to drill it. We need it, we can drill and we need to stop believeing we cannot or dont need it.

Modern Marvels, S14E25, Secrets of Oil, full length episode - YouTube

 

[island1fox]

I hear some say electric cars --the future ?? Better tell the coal industry that is under siege and well as natural gas and fracking.

Take away coal and natural gas --just renewable ---will not cut it !!

 

[ORLY!?!]

Graphic

LiveLeak.com - Egypt Riots - APCs shooting at Protesters

 

[soberups]

I hear some say electric cars --the future ?? Better tell the coal industry that is under siege and well as natural gas and fracking.

Take away coal and natural gas --just renewable ---will not cut it !!

What if every home and building in the United States had solar panels and water heaters on the roof?

What if every suitable location had windmills connected to the grid? What about tidal energy generators?

What if we made ethanol and biodiesel from algae, grown in brackish water or untreated sewage, using desert lands that are otherwise unsuitable for agriculture?

Expensive you say? Yes...but so is maintaining the worlds largest military industrial complex in order to wage wars against nations who are unlucky enough to be sitting on top of the cheap oil we are addicted to. The reality is that if we paid for the cost of our military at the pump instead of simply passing the cost on to our great grandchildren in the form of debt....we would be paying $8 or $9 a gallon for gas instead of only $4.

Is $8 or $9 a gallon a lot? Yes...but if you drive an electric car who cares? Or if you could buy a VW Lupo that got 80MPG on renewable biodiesel...its the same thing as paying $1 a gallon to feed an SUV that gets 10MPG.

If everyone commuted to work in a vehicle that got 40MPG, we wouldnt need to import a single drop of oil from the Middle East and we wouldnt borrow billions upon billions of dollars to wage war or support a military presence there.

The technology exists to resolve our problems. The only thing getting in the way is our sense of entitlement and our unwillingness to embrace change. I for one dont want my great grandchildren to inherit a bankrupt nation in a war-torn world that has been strip-mined of all its resources simply so that I can tow a big boat behind my big SUV.