U.S. oil dependence
It’s not easy being green, but it’s what our nation must do
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists — wimps, actually.

What’s so disturbing about President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying — all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe.

But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today — making ourselves energy efficient, independent and environmentally green — they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do.

Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence — that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.

Living green is not just a “personal virtue,” as Cheney says. It’s a national security imperative.

The biggest threat to America and its values today is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It’s petrolism.U.S. oil dependence

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