Dependency on oil supports terrorism

Jaroslav Plesl, deputy editor in chief of Lidove Noviny, recalls that exactly ten years ago Osama Bin Laden qualified a crude oil price of 144 dollars per barrel as "fair". This mark was reached yesterday, Plesl writes, and Islamic zealots can celebrate the event as a victory in the struggle against the West: "70 percent of crude oil reserves lie under Muslim states that directly or indirectly support Islamic radicals. In this way, American money - and that of the West in general - flows into countries that do everything to weaken the democratic world. ... Our dependence on oil is consequently the major obstacle to successfully countering Islamic terrorism. ... There is only one way to escape this dilemma: we need new sources of energy. But the West has a key advantage over undemocratic countries. Democracy and competition are an extraordinary boon to innovation, and this will help us now as it has before."

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