It deploys strong language to describe the consequences of this dependence. “Our reliance on this single commodity makes us vulnerable … We are held hostage to price fixing by a cartel that includes actors who would do our nation harm, and we are too often called upon to risk the lives of our sons and daughters to protect fragile oil supplies form this very cartel,” the report says.
Source : The guardian
“The Pentagon budget is, for instance, about 50 percent higher today than the Cold War average and accounts for nearly half of all military expenditures globally. And yet it has kept right on growing;”
Source : Mother Jones
“Much has been written about the role of social networks in powering the uprisings, and new media were undoubtedly an important factor. But, to an extent that has not been appreciated, the Arab protest movements emerged as an unintended consequence of western weakness. The demand for change had a specific cause: the steep rise in food prices that was produced by the liquidity released by Ben Bernanke”
Source : New Statesmen
Collected Reading 