Middle Eastern excesses ... largely a product of the American Policital landscape.

We have oil here, but "environmentalists" insist that oil drilling is bad, dangerous, etc... so they insist we just make other people do the drilling in THIER countries.

The middle east is the way it is partly due to our attitudes, policies and out-right idiocy. The current situation in the gulf IS a shame, but I drove by oil wells for almost 40 years in southern Michigan. All they ever brought to the area was prosperity.