I tell you. We spend all that money on invading and occupying Iraq, kill all those Iraqis, get everybody in the world angry at us, and gas is still expensive. What are we looking at now; a trillion, a trillion and a half dollars WASTED - and gas is over three dollars gallon and rising.
I guess we never should have trusted an oil man to keep the price of oil down.
But that's just the beginning of the bad news.
Ever wonder what we could have done with all our wasted tax money if we had just paid attention when the UN said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Ever wonder how we could have spent all our lost tax dollars if we had only treated the 9/11 attacks as criminal acts of a extremist group of Saudis - instead of using the terrorist attacks as excuses to invade two countries?
Dan Hahn did. He calculated how many solar power stations we could have built. Although he didn't use the total Iraq and Afghanistan war costs, including hidden costs - we can...
For 1.5 trillion dollars, we could have built enough thermal solar generation to power HALF our nation's needs.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
That's right, we could have massively reduced our global warming pollutant emissions and been far less reliant on foreign fossil fuels. With less at stake in the Middle East, there would have been less US military presence, and fewer terrorist acts.
And just in case you didn't know, thermal solar power stores heat - to provide power when the sun isn't shining.
We have every right to feel sick now.
Have been reading a previous comment from Nov, where you comment on the price of gas in the states being over $3 a gallon. That is quite cheap compared with Europe, Norway, who by the way have huge incomes from their oil and gas fields, still charge $4.90 for a gallon. Norway have what they call their oil incomes as their "pension" fund. At the present day this fund is something like 2 trillion Norwegian kronor, thats about 200 billion $, for only 5 million Norwegians
ReplyDeleteRick, as you say, IF the USA had not gone to war, under false pretences, we must remember that, then as you say , for $1.5 trillion, the USA could have built solar power, enough for half the nations energy requirements. As you well know, this would not have gone down too well with the coal industry, all the coal fired power plants, and all the necessary bits and pieces that are needed to keep both of these industries working. Whats the point, there is no one in the W H that is able to think into the future. Its the same old saying, we have always had fossil fuels for energy, and we are darned sure gonna have in the future as well, whatever the consequences. Get Bush out next fall, and get someone in who can use that spaces between the ears. Why dont you apply for the job, you seem to have your head screwed on the right way.
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