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OK Brookside, it is true that only 5 of the top 15 countries from which we import our oil are in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Kuwait, Iraq and Libya), but that is only a small part of the story.
The Middle East makes up a large percent of the world's oil production capacity. They export a lot of oil to Europe and Asia. Even if the amount of oil sent to the U.S. didn't change, a disruption of oil from the Middle East would have a huge impact on world oil prices and the world economy, including the U.S., because it is a globally traded commodity. Heck, we don't get any oil from Iran but we still end up paying another $0.25 at the pump every time Iran rattles the sabres because of what war with Iran (or a cut off of Iranian oil) would do to world prices.
Second, Saudi Arabia is #3 at 1,185,000,000 barrels of oil. That is a lot of butt kissing, and a major influence on our foreign policy (including when and where to go to war) right there.
Further, you can read what I wrote more generally as supporting moving away from having to buy oil from countries that aren't friendly to us, or are in unstable parts of the world. Venezuela is a good example of the first. Colombia, Chad and Angola are good examples of the second.
It's really a fairly simple (relatively) short-term fix too. Open up a bunch of nuclear plants, natural gas (of which there is plenty here) and "clean coal" technology power plants to move away from oil. For the "standard" family car type car (Accord, Camry, Taurus) there really is no reason not to move towards hybrids. For other "standard" cars, the newer diesel technologies or ethenol. Of course there will still be quite a few standard gas engines (hopefully, more like the Honda Civic 4cyl and BMW I6 which are quite efficient), but with many other cars using the more efficient technology, and many power plants switching away from oil, we could do a lot to move away from oil from non-friendly or unstable foreign countries.
The benefits will be compounded as well, because many other countries will probably do the same (as Brazil already has).
By diversifying our fuel needs, we'll be much less effected by instability in the Middle East and other oil producing countries.
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