Memorial Day is a time to reflect, honor and pay tribute to the brave men and women who lost their lives defending America. By honoring them it helps us remember the true meaning of courage, sacrifice and service.
There are a multitude of reasons we as humans have fought wars over. Religion, land, nationalistic feelings and just sheer desire for power have usually been the top reasons for war over the past couple thousand years. However that's changing. America has basically been in a constant state of war in the Middle East for the past twenty years and has seen thousands of US troops pay the ultimate price and tens of thousands seriously wooded.
There were probably many reasons why Osama Bin Laden hated America, but one of the main reasons was because the U.S. established a military base in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden saw this as the greatest possible desecration of the holy land, and he was even told to leave the country after threatening and speaking out against the royal family for allowing the US to do so. We needed to establish bases like this all over the Middle East because we knew we would need to have a strong military presence there to protect the oil fields and keep that cheap crude flowing out of the Middle East to supply the West.
Ex CIA director James Woolsey said, “The national security reasons to destroy oil’s strategic role in our economy are substantial,” ...“More than two-thirds of the world’s proven reserves of conventional oil lie in the turbulent states of the Persian Gulf, as does much of oil’s international infrastructure. Increasing dependence on this part of the world for our transportation needs is subject to a wide range of perils.” Woosley is a big supporter of electric vehicles and actually drives a Chevy Volt. He has said on many occasions that the full scale deployment of electric cars in the US will make us a safer, stronger nation as we rely less and less on foreign nations for our energy needs.
Take a look at what the former CIA director thinks about who's funding terrorism: @1.55
James Woolsey: Oil Addiction and Islamic... by FORAtv
Electricity is entirely a domestic product. Virtually every link of the supply chain is a domestic product or domestic labor so 100% of the money spent on electricity stays in either your local or regional economy. That money gets reinvested many times over. Sixty to seventy cents of every dollar you spend on gasoline leaves the US, over a billion dollars a day, and some of it ends up in the hands of people who don't necessarily like us, and would have no problem helping to fund the people trying to kill our troops.
Personally, I believe driving an electric car is not only good for the environment but is patriotic, and is my way of making sure none of the money I spend on my personal transportation fuel is ever used against the brave men and women of the US military. Happy Memorial Day.
UPDATE: I just read this article written by Maj. Gen. Anthony L. Jackson USMC, Ret on this subject so I thought I'd add it here: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/26/fossil-fuel-dependence-leaves-america-vulnerable/?page=1#article
