it just happened that TODAY there is no substitute for transportation fuel.

Mind that major oil-nat.gas reserves are located on the enemy territory: Russia and ME, also effectively controlled by Russia

Mexico where we get a big chunk of our oil imports is always in the state of instability and under marxist threat

Mexico is crawling with kremlin agents and their instrumental `islamic radicals`

Canada as well is and always was infiltrated by kremlin to the unprecedented degree.

You are right we have to work on the situation in the Western Hemisphere.

Or may be start working on elements of active subversion right here in USA?

There is another approach that doctor Zubrin is promoting:

instead of oils and natural gas we may use domestically produce METHANOL for transportation fuel: auto and air as well.

It is much better option then ethanol, because we will not be dependent on agricultural situation or external imports like from brazil or Caribbeans where subversion goes full grown

Washington notices everything that happens in the Persian gulf – their obsession with the place is partly responsible for the mess our economy is in lately.

We’ve always depended on our Gulf allies to regulate oil prices and defend American interests in the area. We’re now discovering that our Gulf allies are useless. They can’t regulate oil prices, their influence is minimal, they have less oil than they claimed to have, their economy is a tulipmania bubble about to burst and they’re generally not worth our trouble.

Then there’s the fact that Saudi Arabia is the hub of world terrorism. If Washington does finally realize that our Gulf enemies are no longer a vital American interest, if they realize that they can be as malign as the Iranians, they deserve a lot of credit.

Oil in the Middle East may be of vital interest, but it’s not our vital interest. We get most of our oil from the Western Hemisphere. We should be paying more attention to our own backyard.

Not enamored by the Gipper but to impune motive and reason retroactively twenty years later is ridiculous. All actions and policies must be considered in their timely and current circumstances.

Neat, the way you summed up a mans life in one episode. Do you have any idea what Iran/Contra was all about or are you just spouting the party line?

If you took the time to look closer, you would discover that the Gipper was is it to win. That’s Strength, Character and Determination.

Oh . . . and he won.

Just like the current Repeb Pres is winning.

So what you got against winning?

I hate to break it to Old Eyebrows posthumously, but assuming 1.4 billion Muslims, and assuming each bucket carried one gallon of water, depositing said water on Israel (20,330 square miles of landmass) would amount to a mist of less than .004″ of precipitation.

We’re not in as bad a situation with Iran as it may appear. You’ve got to put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. Their economy is a wreck – not merely in a minor cyclical slowdown but a real wreck, with stratospheric unemployment and inflation. They are exporting oil but importing gasoline due to lack of refining capacity. At least half their population is hostile to the regime. They are surrounded on three sides by our troops, who rolled up in three weeks the military in Iraq whom they could not defeat in 8 years. We control the high ground of space and their air force is no match for ours. They have missiles which can theoretically reach Israel and Eastern Europe, but with poor quality control and anti-missile systems on the other side, they are of questionable value. If they get into an unconventional missile war with Israel, they will be annihilated.

The reality is that Iran is weak. The danger is that the regime will do something stupid in desperation to cling to power. But, with the younger generation overwhelmingly opposed to the Islamic Republic, their days are numbered.

If he’s the high-water mark of recent presidents, we are truly a lost cause as a nation.

He had the strength, character and determination of a mollusk.