It's obvious that anti-American factions in the middle east are very likely behind some of the attacks but I'd like to caution that we don't refer to folks in the Middle East as Animals etc. That's the kind of sentiment that sparks the hate for Americans. Keep in mind it's a group of radical jihadists hiding behind the Koran, no different from the countless groups of radical christians here in the US using the bible to justify their hate towards other races. Interestingly enough we stand to lose if we do nothing. The fight against terror groups world wide will never end and must be upheld. The men and women in uniform have done us proud at great cost. This is not a Vietnam type scenario where you pull out and suddenly the war is over. Frankly I'd rather hunt them down in the mountains of Afghanistan and the streets of Pakistan than have to fight them here at home.

Actually, these are people fighting against what they see as an imperial force..They happen to be Muslims...You would fight like the devil to keep imperial forces, stealing your resources, out of your country...

Let's try getting the Federal Reserve out of the USA.. You bet your butt, you'll be praying to your God and look like a terrorist to TPTB.

Nick- Yes sir, we need to get the heck out of there, admit we made a mistake and move on.
But what do we do about radical Muslims already in our country? A friend of mine who's wife is a teacher at Brookwood in Gwinnett County came home today quite rattled by two Muslim students who were speaking Arabic to each other, pointing at her and laughing in her face. She said they were obviously trying to intimidate her and if not for the current state of things, they would not have succeeded. She is a darn good teacher and a wonderful person. She shouldn't have to tolerate that.

Why is your friend's wife teaching on Sunday?

NJ4America- Sorry about that. I relayed the experience as I heard it Friday evening. I should have said "...came home Friday..."
My mistake, I'm afraid I am not the most articulate writer.

: ) Just cutting up

NJ- No worries :-)

Oh I understand, I posted two of the same comment, the last was to correct misspellings..Sorry for the misunderstanding, I can be a bit of a jerk at times...HaHa..

Basically, my comment is that we should understand that those people see us as an imperial force, stealing their resources and making their country poor...

We have to understand, this is not about them hating our freedom, that is propaganda fed to the American populace..The US (International Corporations in control) want control of the oil in these places..That's all..

We all work for the corporations, government or banks now...People need to get used to the idea...Or revolt..

When the Federal Reserve devalues the American Dollar 97%in 100 years...There is almost no one who works for a living who could declare themselves "free".

MSM = Main Stream Media (AKA Lame Stream Media...)

Gotcha, thanks. I too am sick and tired of the MSM. That's why we got rid of TV in our house. They call it "programming" for a reason.

Bottom line is YOU won't be profiting from any of this...The reason we are in these countries are to keep us in a perpetual state of war..It's profitable period and our multinational corps get their oil booty...No one is fighting for freedom, at least not the kind you think of.

We have actually lost freedoms in this country...They are systematically being taken away by the state...

Obama is a puppet, so was Bush, so was Clinton...They do as they are told...That's why nothing gets better no matter who you vote for..

This November, you'll have choice between a fake conservative or a fake liberal...Either one will be good enough to manage the sinking of the ship, no one is being hired to save the ship...

The idea is to weaken the USA and make its people poor..The NWO isn't a conspiracy theory..It's right in your face, look at all the countries losing ther sovereignty due to the debt trick being played on them....1 survivor...Iceland...

People could learn a lesson from Iceland ...

@Tammy....Drilling in the US is up higher than it's ever been under the Obama administration. Romney / Ryan are just going to look into it while Obama / Biden are drilling. We are a super power and with that comes responsibilities and yes, foreign policy simply means sticking our nose in everyone else's business and that's what it means to be a super power. On the other hand, as we tread gently on this subject we all must admit that the video is deplorable, unfortunately, all Americans have been tagged for producing it. But lets be clear about something else, these attacks didn't necessarily begin over this movie, the hatred wasn't inspired by the depiction of their deity, it's been this way for decades.

Edward, many privately owned oil wells and fields shut down drilling during the late 80's & 90's thanks to the world-wide glut and subsequent price drop, which made drilling more expensive than the product itself could be sold. As a result of the last decade's price rebound, drilling on private land is up, and that has continued under the Obama Administration.

That said, TOTAL drilling in the U.S., most of which takes place on public lands, is actually down, new licensing has all but stopped, and plans to build the first all-new refinery since the mid-1970's have been scrapped thanks to new EPA regulation and activist legal maneuverings. 9Personally, I'm amazed that the new reactors at Plant Votgle are still a "GO," but that's another issue.)

I do agree with you, though: the movie was an excuse, nothing more. As to the video itself, I have no interest in ever seeing it. I've been to more than one Muslim country, some multiple times; I'm sure the movie would only disappoint.

So what "other alternative energy sources" are you referring to?

@GW

One type of alternative energy sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power

You really don't hear of thorium reactors because you can't produce weapons grade nuclear material.

Then there are others...Wind, Solar...which are not complete solutions, but part of a comprehensive strategy...

You need to do just about everything...That's is you really want to get off of foreign oil..

We need to have a "manhattan project" that deals with making an energy storage device that can have the same characteristics as today's gas tank..Say 300 miles with a 5 minute recharge...

Are you talking about the USA? Just kidding, but your first sentence could describe our own country...Speaking of Orwell, isn't it our own government that has us chasing after an unseen boogeyman? Aren't we the ones involved to never ending wars with Eurasia?

Isn't it the US that is invading sovereign countries to liberate the the the oil...I mean people.

The people who are sitting on tons of oil are Muslims and as far as they can see it is the USA that terrorizes...Just looking at it from both sides, we kill people with drones, that's pretty terror evoking, I'd say. Not to excuse what they do, but we have to look at what we do also and call it what it is..

Bottom line these wars have bankrupted the country, the MIC has benefited greatly and we get stuck with the bill..But that's not the end of it, the bank$ters want us on their "World Currency" and they are destroying sovereign countries in order to do it...Look what happening in Europe...How you resolve debt issues with more debt is somewhat of a mystery to me...Can anyone make sense of it...This is some bankers wet dream of "saving" a country by throwing more debt at it...What a messed up world.

This non-choice election we have:

Notice that not one of these presidential candidates have a viable solution for the national debt issue. Not one has a future vision for the American people..They just want to get elected for the privilege of managing this titanic into the ground..

Nick: "Just kidding, but your first sentence could describe our own country..."

No it couldn't. Really. Have you ever been to a Muslim country?

"Isn't it the US that is invading sovereign countries to liberate the the the oil...I mean people."

If we were, then why did the Iraqi oil contracts end up primarily in Chinese hands? Afghanistan, though rich in rare earths (and opiates) has little usable oil and stands to benefit China & Russia more than the US.

If we're imperialists, we're really doing it wrong.

"Bottom line these wars have bankrupted the country..."

Not by themselves, they haven't. The total estimated cost of the fighting from 2001 to present totals around $1.5 trillion. The Federal deficit for THIS PAST YEAR ALONE is...? Yeah. Only a touch less. Same with the two previous years.

Your arguments are impassioned and persuasive, but they do not stand up to scrutiny. Your conclusions are understandable, but they end up off-target in many cases due to a lack of information.

@ Dave...

Not all is what is seems....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/business/energy-environment/15iht-srerussia15.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

So yea we are doing it "right" we are doing it stealth... We have bases all over the globe...So to any objective observer we are imperialist...

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, there's this pipeline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline and we have to keep fighting and occupying until we can figure out what to do next with our military and contracts...AKA the MIC is making a literal killing over there..

On the Bankruptcy of America...Well there are the endless wars, the SS ponzi scheme, the not paid for medicare part d, The giveaway to insurance company called Obamacare which is unconstitutional..Tax breaks for the rich, the poor and everyone in between, tax breaks for having children, loopholes for most favored corporations, loopholes for hedge fund managers, loopholes so the rich don't have to pay for SS (110,000 cap). Tax incentives for fake farmers, Tax breaks for corporations that offshore jobs. SNAP EBT, Welfare for all the people who lost their jobs, due to all our "free tradee" agreements.. The bank bailouts, The car bailouts...

Then we have a Congress that likes the Federal Reserve credit card and uses it to pay for all of the above....So yea the wars aren't the only thing causing us to go broke.

Thank you for pointing out the very things VP-Candidate Ryan has listed as things we need to address, financially. (Didn't mean to do that, did you?)

The contracts that the NYT mentions are pennies on-the-dollar service and staffing contracts, and most of the wells they're talking about are the ones in QW1 anyway, the one big field that an American company (Exxon) was able to get.

These contracts amount to a few hundred million dollars in revenue (not profit) over the life of those contracts, versus the tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from selling of the actual oil. It's a "thank you for playing" prize, nothing more; fine for a company like KBR/Halliburton, but diddly for someone like Shell or BP.

The pipeline you mention will allow Afghans to buy fuel, and to profit from a roughly straight-line distribution effort through their country, but their use will be mostly limited to taking natural gas out of it, rather than putting it in.

All is NOT as it seems, I heartily agree. For instance, many people talk about how President Obama has begun to end our involvement in Afghanistan, but they do not realize that the current SOFA and security agreement (which he signed) provide for the presence of US troops in-country until at least the year 2024.

The truth IS out there. Keep looking.

Dave ,

Romney and Ryan will sell out..Just like Obama did....They don't work for the people..Ryan voted for the Bank bailout, The Gm bailout...He's just a Socialist for the corporations..

You might think that it matters who is steering the titanic, but I really could care less who is managing the sinking of this country...They'll sink it, that's their job..Just like Obama...

For 40 yrs this crap has been going on, with the standard of living declining for most Americans. You like to debate, but what does it matter..We can waste time debating, meanwhile the people who are really screwing us are getting away with it..

The truth is our representatives don't represent us, they represent corporations and we'll have to figure out a way to change that...

Canada's a lot closer, if you're looking for easy conquests, and a lot richer in oil deposits than the Middle East.

Btw, you do know the U.S. is a net EXPORTER of fossil fuels, yes?

Ok, Dave...Refiners export gasoline, how you or the US benefits from that is anyone's guess...

Gasoline is not the only fossil fuel we export, by a long-shot. In fact, it's not even what we export most. You also forgot to mention to whom we export said gasoline...

Since the argument at hand is that we're hurt by IMPORTING, then EXPORTING should be a good thing, right? Or are you now saying it doesn't matter?

"Again, how does importing or exporting or drilling here actually help the man on the street?"

Again, your argument suggests that import & export levels don't matter. I suggest they DO matter, if only because fuel produced in the U.S. by U.S. workers lowers unemployment and boosts the economy in a very real way. (Go check out the unemployment rates in AK or ND compared to the rest of the country.)

"Exporting is to keep the price up when demand in US is down, closing refineries does the same...Its a great game.."

Exporting is done only when there's someone on the other end willing to pay for the shipping, not the other way around. Anyone who's bought anything online should know that.

"So if you stop exporting gas to other countries, for use only in the US..."

Exactly: bring down the government-imposed restrictions on refining, production and distribution, and so reduce the cost of shipping built into every gallon sold at the pump, simultaneously making the product more profitable to the people trying to sell it, and more affordable for the consumers trying to buy it. THAT, friend, is a "win-win."

But why would Congress do that when they make more in taxes on the oil companies than the oil companies do on the oil itself...? Good question.

Dave, that isn't the point, we were not talking about employment..We were talking about fallacy of drilling at home and it lowering prices...

I addressed exactly that fallacy. Please re-read.

David,

Than whole thing you chucked out there was propagandist crap...Soon you'll be talking about some far fetched story about plane hijackers with box cutters and the hate us for our freedoms BS.

They hate us because of the occupation of their lands and the stealing of their resources period..You'd be a crazy terrorist yourself if Canada decided to invade and start plundering our resources..

Your funny, you have no problem with the big terrorist calling the little terrorist a terrorist...Might makes right..What hypocrisy..

"Than whole thing you chucked out there was propagandist crap...,"

Pot. Kettle. Black.

My friend, I think the biggest difference between you and me is that I've actually seen some of this world you opine so passionately about. I've lived in several Muslim countries, and that's why I phrased my comment above as I did: it's not the "countries" that hate us, it's the ridiculously closed-minded, ill-informed, passionate-for-their-faith zealots. They are a minority, but they are powerful, and in some cases are the ones IN power.

And that is really how they think. I know because I have heard it from those people, both the zealot, and the man-on-the-street. Like, directly. To my face. I didn't learn it in political science class, or see it on TV, or read it on Wiki, or hear about it on talk radio. I've lived it.

As you so aptly put it, it's "Time to step out of the cave..." Those shadows on the wall? They're not the thing, they're the passing image of the thing. Step into the light and see what the full-color world REALLY looks like.

Then we'll talk.

Dave,

Any culture that is fighting for its survival, is going to look like terrorists to the dominant force..

When the new world was discovered, Columbus talked about how nice and innocent the indigenous people were and how easily they could be used as slaves....

The way we treat people, no matter how you try to spin it, we are no better...

We are terrorists to them, they to us and it just keeps getting worse the more we are involved and insist that they change there ways...

I've seen Muslims do the wrong thing as well as our own people, I'm sorry we have killed more Muslims in the name of defeating terrorism then these people ever have..That's just a fact..

We are terrorists to these people..They are the terrorized..and do know who else our government terrorizes? Our own people...TSA at the airport at the bus station at the railroad..

Explain this..

http://www.westernjournalism.com/virginia-judge-orders-the-release-of-marine-brandon-roub/

Really, you want to fight the terrorists, meanwhile you government thinks you are the terrorist..

then why would you agree with Dave..