In any given year a tendency exists to look back in 10 year increments. This year has most often been compared with 1968 with its own Presidential election and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. That focus may have been misplaced. The year we probably should have been focused on is 1973. That year saw the Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli war and the first use of oil as a weapon by the Arabs. That war refocused our Army on the possibility of going to war with the Soviets in Western Europe at Fulda Gap. That new focus caused us to leave behind our lessons in Counter Insurgency warfare and forged the military and AirLand Battle doctrine we used to beat the Iraqis in Gulf War I. But somehow, we never truly reacted to the gauntlet that was thrown down and today we are even more hostage to the Arabs and the politics of the Middle East than ever before.

In The Millionaire Next Door, the authors write about why millionaires become millionaires. They do so because they reach a point in their lives where keeping up with the Jones means nothing to them in comparison to creating their own personal Go To Hell Fund. The existence of that fund enables them to say, "I don't like you. I don't want to do business with you. And you can go to Hell."

You see, we have never been able to develop that vision of energy independence in this country. We've never been willing to undergo the collective discipline to adjust our transportation systems, even if it means taxing ourselves to do so, to be able to say to the Arabs, "We don't like you. We don't want to do business with you. And you and your oil can go to Hell."

If we had done so 35 years ago (had we started then) we could have achieved that by now. We would not have endured the summer we have just endured. Iran and Syria would not have the petro dollars to fund Hamas. Hamas would not be able to fire rockets into Israel and Israel would not be compelled to retaliate.

But doing so requires an intelligent people with vision and leadership to implement that vision who think about the next generation and not just themselves. What did Pogo say? "We have met the enemy and it is us."

Here's the article by Tom Friedman that inspired my mini-rant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28friedman.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1230526693-Ib48ZWMgHs4TqEPCPRhP2g