Terror. Oil. Nukes. Dictators. It's a small world these days. I mean really small. And we are all in it together.
It's like following a game of connect the dots. You can't talk about Iraq without also talking about her neighbors, Iran and Syria. That in turn brings the conversation to Israel, which includes the Palestinians (and Hamas), ... which of course leads to Lebanon (Hezbollah).
You can't leave Iran without including their connection to Venezuela and her neighbors, and of course their nuclear program. North Korea, oh my. Hamas and Hezbollah, terrorist organizations, bring al-Qaeda to the conversation. Naturally we think of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and now Somalia, Kenya, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), Ethiopian and her neighbors.
Throw in some Indonesia and her neighbors. Russia is rapidly declining, taking away freedoms, killing their detractors and along with China working against the US in the United Nations. Today China conducted an anti-satellite weapons test and Russia sells arms and technology to Iran.
The European Union has it's own problems, and the United Nations is full of financial corruption and pedophiles. That brings us to the United States of America. We are all connected.
What comes to mind next? Oil. That's right, ... that evil black stuff with a high price 
that everybody needs. Today oil prices were below $50.00 a barrel. Could it be that "... a result of a geopolitical picture that's not as bad as it looks?" asks Resource Investor.
So now that the oil price is drifting substantially lower, yet the geopolitical situation in the Middle East is as bad as ever, what has changed? Basically, the market has adjusted to the risks, and without any supply shocks, or even near supply shocks, to keep traders on their toes, quite a bit of the fear factor has fallen out of the oil price. [snip]Indeed, it is Iran that traders will be watching, as even a minor incident, say for discussion’s sake a skirmish between U.S. and Iranian forces on the Iraq-Iran border, would have the potential to get oil traders jumpy once again.
CAIR here in the United States claims there are 8 million Muslims in the United States. I guess we will have to take their word for it, since we actually have no idea. Why don't we know the exact number of Muslims in the United States? Because 'the Census Bureau does not survey creed' or religion.
What we do know is that the number of Muslims is growing thanks to higher birthrates, immigration, and conversion. That's right, conversion. We are home-growing our own terrorists. Take 'Adam Gadahn, the first American to be charged with treason in more than fifty years, was born in Oregon, grew up in rural California, and converted to Islam at the age of seventeen.' Read an excellent article in The New Yorker by Raffi Khatchadourian. Azzam the American is now one of Osama bin Laden’s senior operatives.
America is connected in some way to just about every nation in this wonderful world. But most of all, we have a responsibility to ourselves. A responsibility to keep our nation safe, to provide our own fuel/oil, to protect our own borders, our own airlines, our own freedoms. Our first responsibility is to America. Let's not forget that. Let's not let Washington forget that.
__________________________________________________________________________
Related reading from around the small, small world:
Target: Iran, from Main and Central
Reason not to buy into the anti American rhetoric of the Middle East, by Victor Davis Hansen via Prairie Pundit
Iranian Politicians Threaten to Wipe Ahmadinejad From Map, Gateway Pundit
I Guess it was a Bad Time for a Vacation, by Street Prophets
Iran Needs to be Held Accountable for its Actions, theway2k
MP's Rebuke Ahmadinejad + US Wrestlers Recieve Warm Greeting, Iran Nuclear Watch
Hugo and Mahmoud, The Devil's Excrement
Hugo Chavez Says Venezuela And Iran Will Support OPEC, Latin America News Review
What is the United States doing in Somalia?, Sisyphus
Arc of Crisis Extended to Africa, CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS
Is Iran next? Leverett, Farhi, and Posner, The Scribe
Pregnancy at Israeli Checkpoints, from The Front Line
Pay Now or Pay Later?, Common Sense America
Comments