Green industry will bring full employment

By WAYNE MADSEN

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s visionary plan to create a thriving “green industry” by building a renewable energy industrial base will give a huge boost to U.S. strategic global interests by reducing our gluttonous dependence on foreign oil.

Nothing hurt America’s economy more than getting bogged down in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where geo-political energy interests — not just ours, but those of Europe and Japan as well — were crucial to the military objectives.

With burgeoning budget deficits and skyrocketing public debt, the creation of “green wealth” generating new jobs from solar, wind, geothermal and tidal power will provide a strategic roadmap for America to once again exert world leadership.

While George W. Bush pooh-poohed the development of clean energy during most of his two-terms, Obama has long seen the benefits of creating a green industrial base.

Worldwide applause

Shortly before his inauguration in January he stated, “We’ll invest $15-billion a year over the next decade in renewable energy, creating five million new green jobs that pay well, can’t be outsourced and help end our dependence on foreign oil.” Those words belong with the time-honored pronouncements of our Founding Fathers and, indeed, spurred worldwide applause for the U.S. at a time when its popularity had hit rock-bottom.

The Bush-Cheney obsession with oil exploration and exploitation resulted in intractable U.S. military presences in Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan — sadly echoing the GOP 2008 campaign slogan of “Drill, baby, drill.”

Obama’s goal of reducing America’s dependence on foreign carbon fuels is expected within a decade to save the U.S. more oil than the amount now currently imported from the entire Middle East.

To continue business as usual will place increased numbers of U.S. military personnel in harm’s way and diminish America’s reputation in areas where indigenous peoples resent the despoliation of their lands by multinational energy companies backed by U.S.-armed local security forces.

Our insatiable appetite for oil has created wave after wave of repression around the world. The Niger River delta in Nigeria, the upper Amazon territories inhabited by the Indians of Ecuador, and large areas in the Philippines, Burma, Azerbaijan and Indonesia are prime examples of why so many think of the U.S. as the last colonial power.

Ensuring the flow of global petroleum will cost American taxpayers mega-bucks as we are forced to expand our military presence in ways that would make George Washington and Thomas Jefferson shudder.

The recent establishment of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the restoration of the U.S. Navy’s Fourth Fleet for the Western Hemisphere are only the first harbingers.

U.S. oil interests

Most Africans accurately view AFRICOM’s role mainly as protecting U.S. oil interests rather than replacing tyrants with the new democratic leaders they so desperately yearn for.

Coupled with plans for permanent military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of the U.S. military to act as centurions for Big Oil and Big Gas will continue to drain our nation’s already depleted financial resources and create new and unneeded enemies for the United States around the world.

While right-wing critics continue to harp on President Obama’s so-called lack of experience, it is obvious his long-range wisdom is exactly what our country needs in these tremulous times. It is almost impossible to imagine either John McCain or Hillary Clinton — his major opponents in last year’s elections — having the clarity of mind to act so boldly or so wisely.

Only by creating a new “green wealth” and millions of new “green collar” jobs here at home can the United States begin to wean itself from the environmentally-damaging carbon fuels now driving our economy.

Obama entered the Oval Office knowing that the old slogan “Praise Big Oil and pass the ammunition” is no longer a viable strategic goal for the United States. Thanks to his enlightened leadership, an increasing number of Americans are beginning to agree.

X Wayne Madsen is a contributing writer to the progressive online journal (www.onlinejournal.com). Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services