Speaking just for myself, I think that President Obama tapping into America's strategic oil reserve was an extremely unwise and dangerous move.
They can say that he didn't do it for political purposes, but until the cows come home and set up housekeeping, I still won't believe it.
The reason being that, at best, it is a temporary measure which will be nothing more than a blip on the radar screen of the world's crude oil prices. Whatever fleeting effect it causes will do absolutely nothing to ease our real problem of depending on people who hate our guts to keep our cars and industries running.
Why has it been impossible for all our presidents and both political parties to face the fact that the only energy supplies we can really rely on are the ones that exist below the lands and the waters of The United States of America?
I have come to believe that there is something much more sinister than the Sierra Club and Greenpeace that prevents us from exploiting our plentiful energy resources, something organized and dirty with the strings being pulled in the highest political offices and the most prestigious corporate boardrooms in the world.
But that's another subject for another time. Let's get back to the one at hand.
The oil we take out of our reserves will have to be replaced at whatever the price happens to be at the time we replace it, which could very well be higher than it is now.
And even worse than that, was this truly a strategic need or a political need?
I personally opt for the latter. I think it was political and foolish.
Our strategic oil reserves are supposed to guard against a time when something happens that critically disrupts our flow of oil and threatens to shut the country down. To provide fuel so our planes can fly and our defenses can be maintained.
Fuel to be used to harvest and move food around the nation in case of a worldwide breakdown, which looks entirely possible in the next few years.
What do we do when the fanatics close down the Persian Gulf or blow up the pipelines in Saudi Arabia? What if we sustain a major domestic attack?
Our strategic oil reserves should be for the defense of this country, not to bolster the sagging poll numbers of a reckless president.
What do you think?
