Playing Chess In the Dark: Ending Our Dependence On Oil

Gaza Funeral

"I will set a clear goal as president: in ten years we will finally end our dependence on oil in the Middle East."

If the President-Elect can make serious in-roads in that campaign promise we will have "peace" in the Middle East. We can redirect the $9B+ in aid and untold Billions in weaponry focused on Israel and put it back into our infrastructure. We can bring our troops home. The military should not be populated by criminals who are trained to kill just to avoid a draft. We can slow global warming. We can sing with the Happy Feet penguins. The Neo-cons, religious zealots, jihadists whatever you want to call them from ALL SIDES will have to soften their overly aggressive (but necessary to them) actions against each other. People will have to sit at the table and work something out. It won't be a total hand-holding venture but the stinger will have been removed from the scorpion. Innocent people may breathe a little easier and the casualty pile-up will decrease. 

I watched Charlie Wilson's War last week and though I took it with a grain of salt, the ending of the movie was totally on target. After the bombings stopped and 'victory' was declared, Rep. Wilson went to his fellow war hawks and asked for money to rebuild a school. His reasoning was that the Afghan children had nowhere to go and weren't going to care about who did what and why. They were just going to see the devastation and know it came from certain people and would grow up wanting to avenge their loss. He was ignored. 

Blowback is a bitch. The cycle of violence and blame has to end.

photo courtesy of the CBC