It would appear that not only has the Iraqi government been raking in billions of dollars on its sale of oil, but has only spent about 1 percent towards assisting the U.S. in OUR expenditures to free THEIR country of tyranny and lack of individual freedoms. This despite the fact that the American government has authorized roughly $48 billion since 2003, of which we have spent about $42 billion thus far, despite an estimated $50 billion dollar surplus that Iraq is projected to have accumulated by the end of this year. Despite this they have spent only a tiny fraction of their own money on the rebuilding of their countries infrastructure. In fact, between 2005 and 2007 they have actually spent about 92 percent LESS than they did prior to 2005! And why should they as long as we are going to just keep throwing billions of our taxpayer dollars at them.

   I am sure you have noticed the sudden jump in the price of a gallon of gas over the past year or so. Funny how it was only early last year that Americans first began hearing dire predictions from those “experts” that the world may have now used more than half it’s oil resources. This only a short while after our Middle Eastern “allies” had purchased significant shares in not only American main stream media companies, but also practically bought the worlds financial trading centers like the New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, and the Asian/oriental stock exchange. Then, somewhat shockingly the price of oil makes an incredibly sharp jump in an incredibly short time period. The “experts” now tell us this is due to those pesky stock “speculators.”

   Well here is the truth about one of the richest countries in the world’s equally rich natural resources. I am speaking of course of the United States of America. I first read an oil related article in a trade magazine this past February and have been telling everyone who would listen to prepare for the biggest announcement of this century, and then, nothing. Finally, the word of this is beginning to come out but has received almost no coverage from our Saudi owned MSM. Shocking I know, but here it is. The U.S. has the largest known oil reserves in the world. Trillions, not billions of barrels of oil just ready for the taking! Enough oil to last the U.S. for AT LEAST THE NEXT 300 YEARS!

   But wait you say? You haven’t heard about this at a time when a gallon of gasoline is costing about $4 dollars a gallon in our country? You haven’t heard zip about this from your elected politicians, or our current presidential candidates? How can this be? Well here you go, and of course I don’t ask that you believe me just because I am saying this, you can goggle it for yourself. Go ahead and give it a try. Just enter the key words, “untapped U.S. oil reserves” and see what you can find to corroborate this assertion. But first allow me to finish!

    A shale-oil field first explored in the 1960’s and widely known as the Bakken Formation, was long believed to be very large, but the cost of recovering the oil was considered just to expensive at a time when a barrel of oil cost less than $20 dollars a barrel. U.S. oil companies, using much more sophisticated equipment than what was available in the 60’s, got permission to further investigate the Bakken Formation just last year. What they uncovered took the oil companies breathe away! This field is HUGE stretching from the western two-thirds of North Dakota, the western portion of South Dakota, and eastern Montana, all the way into Canada!    

    The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels! Making it the largest oil discovery in more than 50 years. That’s about 5 TRILLION dollars worth of oil, at $100 dollars a barrel! But wait! It gets even better! This isn’t just any old sludge oil, its “sweet” light crude, the most sought after oil as it is easy to refine. Just the Bakken Formation alone would be enough to fuel the U.S. for about 40 years, and should only cost Americans about $16 dollars a barrel! Remember, I said “should” not would.

   As big a deal as this is, it gets better still! It turns out that the Rocky Mountains are sitting on top of the world’s largest untapped oil reserve in the world, with more than 2 TRILLION barrels! This was reported by the Stansberry Report Online on April 20, 2006. So it turns out that we have more than eight times more oil than Saudi Arabia, and more than 21 times the oil in Kuwait, or far more oil than all the Middle East countries combined! Right here in the Western United States, and that doesn’t even count any oil off our coastlines, ANWAR, or areas as yet undiscovered.

   So why haven't the American people been told of this incredibly good news? Why are our two presidential candidates arguing about how we should map out a plan to energy independence when this is already known, from the President on down, while checking the air pressure in our tires? Why indeed? Every American who has complained and agonized over the cost of fuel in this country should get off their lazy butts and contact their elected officials to demand that they immediately begin utilizing these vast resources. This would create millions of jobs and pump many trillions of dollars into our economy within just the next few years.

   These same elected officials should then invest significant amounts of our nation’s new found wealth into alternative energy sources to eventually replace our need for oil completely. These new technologies, perhaps within the next 30 to 50 years, would then be able to be not only an incredibly lucrative exportable technology for the rest of the world, but would potentially eliminate smog, contaminated ground waters, and the all the rest. Our children would thank us, and successive generations of humans around the world would thank us. But hey, don’t take my word for this, check it out for yourself. Our nation’s resources are abundant and not simply limited to oil. We have the world’s largest known reserves of coal. The world’s largest known reserves of natural gas. Minerals, rich farmland, precious and semi-precious metals, and much, much more in abundance.  

   Still, it does make you wonder why our politicians have not only made this information known, but actively engaged in reaping the vastness of these resources that must be envied by every other nation on the face of the planet. You don’t have to have made it past the eighth grade to know this is what they would refer to as a “no brainer.” Still it does make you wonder why our elected officials, many of which are highly educated at some of the finest universities in the world haven’t themselves been able to figure this out. Why indeed?