T. Boone Pickens recently spoke with Brigitte Gabriel of Act for America for an episode of his podcast. Here are five key takeaways from their discussion.
Middle East oil funds terrorism. It’s that simple.
No one denies that ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, and other terrorist organizations sell oil, steal oil, and get paid off in petrodollars. The only question is how many millions they take in each month.
Today’s War on Terrorism is a much different battle.
Terrorist organizations such as ISIS produce TV shows. They use social media to lure recruits. They’ve even hacked into the Pentagon. This requires time, training, and a lot of money. Want to guess where they get it?
America’s dependence on OPEC oil is part of the problem.
The CIA has long known that OPEC producers buy off terrorists by funneling money to terrorist organizations. Think about that the next time you fill up your tank.
Americans can’t change the Middle East.
U.S. troops spent a decade fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. What did we get? Thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars added to the national debt. And they’re still fighting each other just as they were before we arrived.
But we can change ourselves.
Over the last decade, we’ve cut our dependency on Middle East oil in half. Let’s end this dangerous addiction by converting the remaining 50 percent to American fuels such as domestic natural gas.