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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tech Master who wrote (483448)	10/29/2003 5:43:14 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769667

No, Ace, my 'solution' as you say, is "DON'T be purblind fools, and DO take the smartest strategic action... using the most cost effective means." Anything else only provides FALSE SECURITY. For example: after spending 1/2 Trillion dollars in Iraq, will the US be any less susceptable to disruptions in the Middle East oil supplies? No, we won't, that strategic vulnerability will still remain, our security will NOT be ASSURED (as we move to above 50% reliance on oil imports from the troubled Middle East region.) But if that same amount of money had been invested in new technologies - creating new jobs and entire new industries - fuel cell developments, a hydrogen distribution system, mandatory Net Metering on our power grids, more decentralized power production, etc., etc., lower taxes, etc., etc. than we could have been SAFE from disruptions to the oil supply. If you want to sit back, ignore the hard strategic choices, and watch your country piss away it's economic base... well then, I guess I can't stop you, but don't delude yourself. --------------------- >>> IMO, it all comes down to risk/reward... and Opportunity Cost - the cost of forgone opportunities. >>> Figure... what? 1/2 Trillion dollars, or $600 Billion or so cost to the American taxpayers before we can extricate ourselves? (Not counting, of course, all the INTEREST COSTS that will add up on that debt - since the war was paid for with borrowed money - over the next 30 years or so... maybe cracking the $1 Trillion mark in the end.) >>> What ELSE could 1/2 to 1 Trillion dollars have bought us? Total US energy independence? A paid-up healthcare system? A balanced budget? A reformed, next generation defense force? A funded privatization of the Social Security system? >>> Some things are just better VALUES. >>> That old dictator Saddam was in his seventies... and apparently mostly WMD-less in a dangerous neighborhood. By all rights, we should have gotten rid of him during Desert Storm - but Bush I either didn't have the guts... or strategic vision... or, if we take him at his word, he feared the CONSEQUENCES. >>> But that was then, this is now... what is our best allocation of resources?