Russia's Natgas Weapon Deployed Again

From a WSJ opinion piece Wednesday:

Here's the salient fact about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over gas supplies: Russia's strongman is wielding the energy club to undermine the pro-Western government in Kiev and scare the European Union into submission. The strategic stakes are as great as in Georgia last summer.

Marry that with this recently in from the Iranian New Agency via Reuters: 

Pointing at Westerners' dependence on the Islamic countries' oil and energy resources, [Iranian leaders] called for cutting the export of crude oil to the Zionist regime's supporters the world over. 

That's us. I'm not saying the somewhat US-aligned GCC countries are going to immediately fall in line with Iranian guidance, but I am saying that if they did, we'd be a bit like Ukraine presently caught in the economic cross hairs of Russia's energy weapon. Food for thought when considering how much urgency DOD and the US as a whole needs to place on energy efficiency and new energy capabilities.

Photo of Kiev in Winter courtesy of Trey Ratcliff