It is all about oil.

The US economy is completely and utterly dependent on cheap transportable energy which is gasoline (petrol.)  1/6th of the US economy depends directly or indirectly on the automobile.  The last 50 years of Real Estate investment has been dependent on the automobile.  The last 4 years the US economy has been driven by a Real Estate boom, fueled by cheap money, in the context of ever expanding suburbia, dependent on the automobile.

With economic dependence (addiction?) comes a corresponding cultural adaptation.  The car becomes more than a cog in a mass transit system.  The car takes on, attaches to, resonates with various mythos: symbol of freedom, symbol of independence, socio-economic status signal, sub-group adherence signal, e.g., VW Microbus.

The one unity of life in America, crossing all ethnic, racial, gender, sexual preference, social, economic, class, and geographical division is the car.  

Economy needs cars.  Cars need gas.  Gas comes from oil.

The world is running into Peak Oil.  The US economy is running out of cheap gas.  

If you think the US is dangerous now, consider what happens when we replace the incompetent madmen with talented madmen.  

The world is not about to become safer.

Yup.