Well, we are pretty far removed from 2001. Try to learn how to read. You must not have been alive in 2001, so you didn't experience the wake of the September 11th attacks where airline travel cratered and gas prices dropped (probably the last time I paid under a dollar a gallon):http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/americas/06/sept_11_in_graphs/img/airline2_629x228.gifSince you weren't around in 2001 and only get tidbits from the Huffington post or some other liberal rag, I will update you on what happened. 19 terrorists hijacked 4 planes, crashing 2 into the world trade center, one into the pentagon and the other crashed in farmland in Pennsylvania as another attack was thwarted by people on the plane. Of the 19 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia and all of the planning for the attack and the financing came from Osama bin Laden, a member of the Saudi royal family. Big picture, the attack was not performed in the interest of jihad (it was merely the tool used by the Saudi regime), but in the interest of driving up oil prices to line the Saudi royal families pockets. They made additional money through the shorting of airline stocks leading up to 911.If you look at the modern conflict in Syria, it is all tied to gas prices. Russia and Iran have some of the higher production costs as their reserves are nowhere near as high yield as the Saudis. Their economies were severely impacted by the $40 a barrel gas we had recently (it has since bumped up to $50) as the majority (60% for Russia, 80% for Iran) of their exports are oil. The chemical attack in Syria was perpetrated by the Russians to bait the US to intervene and further disrupt oil prices. Russia doesn't really want a war (and they don't want the conflict to come to an end, as peace is bad for their economy both on the oil price side as well as the arms sale side), and they really don't care about Syria one way or the other, they are just exploiting the instability to impact world oil markets.http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/030315/how-does-price-oil-affect-russias-economy.asp
XY wrote:
Every year sets a new record for the number of passengers flying commercial airlines.