I agree with most of what you say. With 20-20 hindsight, our nation should have seen the light back in the early '70's and dumped resources into alternative energy production - the situation was more than obvious even then. We would have cut off the camel jockey's income BEFORE other demand emerged (as it now has).

And we should do this now. See pickensplan.com - even though it's more a "buying time" measure. What if, instead of attacking Iraq, and Afgan for that matter, we took that same money and dumped it into an all-out alternative energy initiative? Windmills everywhere the wind blows, solar arrays on every rooftop in the west, efficient batteries/electric cars. Half a trillion buys a lot.

I could go on and on.....

One minor "correction" to the "one nuclear sub" scenario (assuming SSBN). I believe they carry 24 missiles, each with multiple warheads that can be separately targeted. Two missiles max. But ulltimately you're right - one SSBN. (SSBN = Ship, Submerseable, Ballistic, Nuclear).

SGE