A national common cause?

Decades ago, this nation fought raw evil: A genocidal, megalomaniacal dictator in Europe, and a megalomaniacal nation filled with genocidal soldiers in the Pacific. To win, America united. Nearly everyone was affected by the war effort. Children participated in scrap drives, women entered the work force en masse as "Rosie the Riveter"s, people bought war bonds in quantities that are simply amazing today. The war effort at least led people to encourage others to work together. The economy was transformed.



Today, America is disunited in wars on two continents. The United States spent the equivalent of $428 billion in World War II. One projection of Iraq is $2,600 billion. The White House fired a financial adviser who projected expenses of $100 billion to $200 billion, but his worst-case figure has already been passed: It's now $293 billion. (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4,
5.)

The United States will have to figure out a way to pay for these wars. Why, then, can it only do a terrible job in preventing wars and even nuclear attack?

What this country needs is something to unify it. To win World War II, workers united with industry united with government. Such unification would be appropriate and possible if the United States truly sought to free itself of its reliance upon oil, which of course comes from politically unstable countries, dictators and simple nutjobs in South America, Africa and, of course, the Middle East.

The great majority of France's electrical needs are supplied by nuclear power. That's a relatively easy, relatively safe answer to supply issues.

Conservation is even cheaper. My neighborhood hardware store now sells compact fluorescent lightbulbs for $0.99. They'll save many times that figure in electrical use, and nearly last forever.

America is the land of ingenuity. Yet more engineering jobs are shifting off our shores, more Americans are dying in far-off lands to support the oil thirst, and some borderline fuel-efficient vehicles are ridiculed. America can, and must, do better. Why not cut our oil entanglements?