Marcy Kaptur: “I was thinking about this today and reading the headlines about Afghanistan, and that country now trying to pull…”

“I was thinking about this today and reading the headlines about Afghanistan, and that country now trying to pull together a government and it is not very easy to do. But assuming they could pull the government together, through Afghanistan will come an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea. Then we see the President's comments about Iraq and whether or not certain forces will be used to destabilize the government of Iraq, and we recall the Persian Gulf War and that oil field that lies between Iraq and Kuwait. Then we saw the Bush administration a few weeks ago give mixed messages to this Congress and the world about Venezuela and which government the administration was supporting or not supporting in Venezuela. What do Iraq, Venezuela and Afghanistan all have in common? They have in common the oil imperative. So many times when you see the United States become dependent, as we are in this oil arena, very bad things can happen. Indeed, wars can happen when our country is not independent. I think it is important what the gentleman is presenting in terms of the financial condition of our country and who we owe. The first phone call I made after 9-11 was to Alan Greenspan, and I wanted to know from an economical standpoint who can pull our bonds internationally. I said, I want you to assure me that we can hold it together because 40 percent of the debt of this country is now owned by foreign interests. He said, We can track that back to the London markets.…”