If the money this nation has spent on the Iraq war was instead spent on bringing alternative energies to the marketplace, and subsidizing the American people's shift to new vehicles, we would be in a much better place right now. However, no one in the current regime...i mean administration... wanted to convey to the people or our elected representatives the true cost of the war to come. Such things were known ahead of time, and with a little honesty I think the majority of our nation would have supported staying out of war, and switching energy sources. Heck, we could have even paid the oil companies tens of billions of dollars to keep them happy and still run up a smaller tab.

Beyond the financial implications of the Iraq war, we have also commited ourselves to an energy resource war. And much like the cold war, the energy war will continue for decades and end only when one nation is left NOT bankrupt and depressed. We are already way behind the financial power curve to engage in this war, and we just may end up with an economy like democratic Russia.