mr president the momentous events in north africa may have profound consequences for good or bad for the future prosperity and peace of western civilisation but we are watching the outcome of a process that began forty years ago
the west has been held to ransom by oil-producing states and we have transferred billions upon billions of dollars to corrupt and despotic regimes
without oil colonel gaddafi would have been nothing more than a local tinpot dictator
we have to hope that countries like libya produce democratic and liberal regimes for their sakes and for our own but we cannot rely on this
what western countries must do is concentrate funds and scientific research to find an alternative to oil
if there is one lesson in this crisis that we have to learn above all others it is that western civilisations must not be dependent on others for their vital energy supplies
