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What's important in Libya is, first of all, it has a good deal of oil. A lot of the country is unexplored; there may be a lot more. And it's very high-quality oil, so very valuable.

Oil is ancient wealth in the ground.

Libya has had to put up with too much from the Arabs for whom it has poured forth both blood and money.

One of the things that has been very difficult in Libya is the sense of uncertainty - the sense that they haven't actually finished the revolution, that there was still a great deal of uncertainty. That uncertainty has made Libya harder for business in terms of oil and other things as well.

We have to get the oil where the oil is.

The greatest asset, even in this country, is not oil and gas. It's integrity. Everyone is searching for it, asking, 'Who can I do business with that I can trust?'

The country remains dependent on oil. But as we are now learning, oil is becoming increasingly scarce.

Pricey oil makes clear that wealth really is energy in various forms.

So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.

Despite spending trillions of dollars and spilling the blood of thousands of Americans, we remain in servitude to Arab oil.