We arrogantly declared victory in a global conflict that had not ended, and proceeded to act as if the world was our responsibility- No I'm not talking about the day that George W. Bush declared the war in Iraq to be won, I'm talking about the colossal mistake the West made when they failed to drive the stake into the heart of the monstrous Soviet Union. The rattling of sabers we have witnessed over the course of the last couple years is just the beginning, many analysts shrugged it off to nothing more than Putin's nostalgic need to feel important, but in reality we have been tested continuously by an intelligent foe bent on our demise and the resurrection of the iron curtain. With that in mind America cannot look at this threat as the same one we faced before. Putin, who has been replaced by his handpicked president, is not Gorbachev, but the leader of a ruthless group who have censored the countries free press, and controlled the outcome of the last election, and so we must proceed with caution when confronting this ex-KGB director and his cohorts. Russia's control over almost half of the fossil fuel being delivered to Europe is what is filling the countries coffers with money and the countries leadership with bravado. Since 2006 Russia has raised prices at times as much as quadruple on her neighbors, cut back supply when political arm twisting was needed, threatened to cut off supply of several neighbors, and in recent days reduced the oil to the Czech Republic without warning the day they signed a strategic missile defense agreement with the United States. In other strategic moves, Russia has been attempting to take control of the oil and gas flow coming out of former Soviet member countries that deliver oil and gas to Europe by dissuading them from the American led efforts to build pipelines bypassing Russia and Iran. Recently they offered to buy all the reserves being held by Azerbaijan at market price, a direct attempt to corner the Central Asian market to solidify Russia's ability to turn on and off the heat in Europe at will. There will come a time in the near future when America will have to rely on the support of her allies to preserve the freedom and prosperity we enjoy in this country, and so we need to come to the assistance of our allies, before the control Russia is exerting over European action is complete. We ‘won' the first round of the cold war by allowing Russia's own weakness to destroy her from the inside. The Soviet Union embraced an ideology that limited the potential of the citizens and was so rigid as to make national unity across cultural lines impossible, and so the Great Power collapsed when it was unable to keep up with the American optimism that culminated in Reagan's vision of an America free from the ominous promise of mutually assured destruction. This program called the Strategic Defense Initiative pushed the Soviet Union to the brink, the choice was either war, or the withdrawal from attempted world domination. Fortunately for the world, they chose the latter course. America once again needs to embrace the peculiar optimism that exemplifies her best and brightest, and forge ahead for our countries sake as well as the worlds. Both Europe and America are being threatened by socialist forces that are controlling our energy supply, in Europe a resurgent socialist Russia, and in the United States, our own socialist politicians who have allowed our country to be dependent on foreign sources of oil by not allowing the production of new refineries or allowing our companies to drill on American land- Our country once led the world in production and drilling and we are now behind even Norway, when we still have vast untapped reserves.
The time has come to supplement SDI with SEI. A program called Strategic Energy Initiative, which would have the sole stated purpose of complete energy independence for America and her allies. We've spent billions on defense of our country with missile defense and terrorism; we need to spend billions on energy independence, which unlike the other programs will also boost the economy in the long run. First we need to show our friends and the fence sitters that we are completely committed, only with strong resolve can we hope to encourage our allies to take the leap of faith that would require them to sever ties with the Russian umbilical cord. America would have to expand production of fossil fuels to a point that they have never been at, supplying our needs as well as those of Europe at better than competitive prices. This strategy cannot last forever and would need to be the first phase of many. The next step would be restructuring the American power grid to relieve us of our reliance on oil for most of our domestic consumption. Nuclear plants will need to be built, and we need to spend billions more on alternative energy sources that we can export to Europe. Also the modernizing of the grid structure itself is necessary, we are at serious risk as we speak of small attacks being able to hamstring us by knocking out significant amounts of our power supply network. Just the threat of this program would bring world prices down so that the perceived need for such a program would be lessened, but we cannot let that deter us, because we have already seen that at a moments notice, our enemies are more than willing to cut the life support. Every day that goes by without action we are allowing our freedom and security to become more threatened. Pray for our future, write your congressman, and inform your friends.
