Edmund Storms wrote:
I don't think this approach will work under present conditions. In the process of denying funding, the people will get even more improvised and desperate.
There are 2 billion people in the world living in desperate conditions on the edge of starvation. They are not attacking us. All of the 9/11 plotters and all leading members of Al Qaeda are educated, middle-class people, or extremely wealthy people. Terrorism is not caused by poor and desperate people.
Funding can not be cut fast enough to stop the growing desperation.
Of course it could. If the US had launched a massive World War II style effort to fix the problem starting in 2001, oil would be worth practically nothing today. In January 1942 the US government closed down the entire automobile industry, confiscated every last assemble vehicle and spare part, and banned the sale of cars to civilians for the duration of the war (except to doctors and a few others). If we had taken similar bold action in 2001, and ordered the entire automobile industry to begin manufacturing plug-in hybrids only, we would be well on our way to reducing oil consumption by a factor of 10. Ford and General Motors would dominate the international market and would be selling tens of millions of ultra-efficient cars to China and other countries. Oil would be selling for $10 a barrel, and even at that price sales would be dropping. Saddam Hussein, the Saudi and Iranian governments would be bankrupt and probably overthrown by now.
All this and more could have been done . . . but nothing was done. - Jed
