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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (1344)	8/8/2008 3:46:47 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

Many ruined lives, and many greatly improved lives (although mostly non-Americans). As for a trillion in debt, we haven't spent a trillion on Iraq, and since federal revenue covers most federal spending, the portion of the spending on Iraq that is debt is even smaller. And whether or not Iraq is worth it, the point is that future conflicts in the Middle East, and even future American involvement in the Middle East is likely, and not significantly less likely if we make a big push on alternatives.

To: Road Walker who wrote (1344)	8/8/2008 5:50:48 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86355

You realize we have a lot of troops stationed in places like SK, Japan, Okinawa, Europe. Even though no hostilities are ongoing there, it is not costless to maintain bases there. Should we pull all our troops back to our borders? Some would say so, but there would be costs and risks involved in doing that in terms of lost influence and increased world insecurity and violence. For one thing, other countries willingness to engage cooperatively on things like nuclear proliferation and anti-terrorism policies is linked to our having influence and power abroad. Without our involvement in suppressing violence in the Balkans, that situation would likely have continued perhaps leading to a wider war. That is the place WWI began. If local conflicts in certain regions escalate, we tend to end up getting drawn in when the conflicts widen - see the past two world wars.