Regarding Walter Russell Mead’s “ Fracking Our Way to Mideast Peace ” (op-ed, Dec. 12): While the general sentiment is correct that American energy independence frees American foreign policy, it does not address the repercussions. Consider the economic impact in the lower economic status countries in OPEC (Venezuela, Libya, Angola, Algeria, Ecuador, Kuwait and Nigeria—almost all of the cartel except Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran and the UAE). These repercussions have ranged from slight economic decline to complete economic collapse (see Venezuela). This is by no means a fault of American foreign policy. On the contrary, OPEC has made decisions in recent years that have not had the best interest of its entire member body at heart. Mr. Mead does little to describe the industry downturn in the U.S., which at one point lost over 250,000 jobs among operators, service companies and other third-party providers. As for how this lands […]