Oh, m’gosh, we’re fighting the wrong war! The U.S. is now spending billions on building more military bases in Asia and Africa. While none of these nations has attacked the U.S., we are told that we must defend our “interests.” As I see it, stamp collecting or golf is an interest; wanting other nations’ gold, oil or uranium is not an interest, it is coveting, and you can read about it in the Ten Commandments.
When will we wake to the fact that with our lagging schools, unemployed workers, cutbacks on first responders, stagnant economy and rotting infrastructure, we are in no position to lavish money on building military bases around Asia and Africa to please our tax-evading international corporations?
Climate Change is attacking the United States! We have droughts and fires in the West, floods and tornadoes in the Midwest and killer storms in the East. According to the National Climatic Data Center, in the last dozen years, climate change has killed 3,952 American men, women and children. It has destroyed $412 billion in property – not counting Sandy, which is yet to be totaled.
In spite of these terrible losses, we have yet to cut back on our carbon output or to harden our infrastructure to withstand climate attacks. The challenge of reducing our fossil fuel dependency, while increasing our wind, solar and other energies is still largely at the whim of our fragmented Congress. There is not even a plan to build the new infrastructure needed to transmit alternative energy from the windy plains and burning deserts where it is generated to the industrial and urban areas where it will be needed.
It is ridiculous to be pouring money into being the world’s policeman while our people are dying from increasingly violent storms at home. We need to invest in America’s future, in our people, in our education and technologies. We need to protect our working people from the competition of underpaid and unprotected workers abroad. We need to plug the drain of “Free Trade” that has made China rich, while we carry increasing debt and allow them to buy American technology and businesses.
The future of America does not depend on resources from Asia or Africa. It depends on our ability to invest in our future now. We must improve the care of our children, too many living in mind-numbing poverty. They need better nutrition, better preschooling, better schools. We need to train our people to approach change creatively and to learn the skills and attitudes we will need to deal with the devastating weather events of the future.
The challenge of this century is to survive severe climate change as a healthy, vigorous, self-reliant society working in partnership with a reinvigorated natural world. We must prepare for the future, and stop trying to recreate the past. That will require the active participation of all people dedicated to the future of Life on Earth.
Peter G Cohen, artist-writer, is a veteran of W.W.II, the author of 
www.nukefreeworld.com and other internet writings. He has been concerned with the environment and climate change for decades.