A Little Basic Math: The Trillions We Waste in 'Defending' the US [View all]

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http://www.nationofchange.org/little-basic-math-trillions-we-waste-defending-us-1375107669



Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert Gates argued against president Obama’s aim to cut $400 billion from national security spending, a bloated habit which was to be reigned in over the next 12 years, but let’s look at what the U.S. government has spent on ‘defending’ our nation in just the last decade.

Getting Rid of Fossil Fuel Dependency

We have transferred over $4 trillion of energy-wealth to foreign countries in the past decade in the form of petroleum dependency, and this speaks nothing of the cost of ‘controlling’ the Middle Eastern countries who largely supply the U.S. with its cocaine-like dependency on fossil fuels.

The cost of securing forces to travel and fight in the Middle East is astounding. According to costofwar.com, tax payers have shelled out more than $814,809,683,000 to fight in Iraq, and more than $645,114,590,000 in Afghanistan. The cost of fighting in the Persian Gulf, is estimated to have cost over $50 billion a year. In a decade, that adds up to $500 billion. If we were to look at this one line item alone, we could install a solar system in every single home in America (approximately 313,915,000 people live in America and presumably not all in individual households), at an average of 86 cents per kilowatt, and with solar cell technology advancing every day, the entire nation could be running off the power of the sun in less than a decade.

Congress recently reviewed an appeal to cut more than $3 billion to fund an ‘alternate engine’ for a Joint Strike Fighter, which members of the Navy, Air Force, and Marines have called unnecessary. Might not $3 billion provide free solar power to some of our nations poorest, not unlike the recent initiative being carried out in Peru, which will provide solar energy to over two million citizens? Or why not give just half of that money to researchers, Vladimir Bulovic and Richard Lunt from MIT who developed a transparent solar cell that can be applied to windows and even paint? I’d pick up a paintbrush tomorrow, if it meant we could stop supporting the petro-dollar, wouldn’t you?