Understanding our Enemies...

Much as been made of the fact that terrorism and the underlying, supportive philosophy of Wahabism has been funded by the oil wealth of the house of Saud. Many have argued that we should do our part to defund the Saudis by reducing our use of oil.

While this argument has merit on its face, as 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and the ring leader Bin Ladin hails from there, it draws the incorrect conclusion -- that the problem is oil -- not that the problems is Islamo-fascism. A superb analogy demonstrating this point comes from "Gates of Vienna"

Look at it from another angle: For the past thirty years Norway has received enormous revenues from North Sea oil. Therefore it would be a good idea to cut back on petroleum usage in order to de-fund the export of Scandinavian terror, and keep the Viking zealots from imposing strict Norse law on the rest of the world. If they had their way, we'd all be eating lutefisk and climbing into the sauna with --gasp!-- — members of the opposite sex.

Obviously, the problem isn't the transfer of wealth, but the behavior of the recipients.