The other day we wondered what the total cost of the Iraq was was … and doing a Internet search led us to the total figure of $797 BILLION.

Next question: What might that money have accomplished aside from conducting a war effort.  If humans could generate more electricity to power homes and electric cars, might that help turn the US away from other energy dependencies.  Might it combat global change and even benefit the entire planet?

In hind sight, political leaders in Washington (present and former Presidents, current and past Congress persons, PACS, NGOs, the whole lot of the intellectual elite … all get a finger pointed at them here) can be blamed for following a really dumb strategy.  What does war accomplish in this case?  This is not a plea for peace and love, etc. This is a look at the window’s view!

Lets consider this a view to CORPORATE all inclusive blame. Actually, is anyone or everyone aware of what humans might have done?

Yep, hindsight is great stuff for sure … but we sit in the window and look out at the world and this is what we see.  There are approximately 69 million single family homes in the US.

QUESTION: If a typical basic solar installation for a home is $25,000, then how many homes might be covered if the US Government had offered a 50% subsidy ($12,500) to those homes adding solar to supplement power in the home and local power grid?

ANSWER: 63.7 MILLION homes could have added solar with the 12,500 dollar subsidy.  Okay, so not every home is a prime candidate for solar.  What if the Government gave a $25,000 subsidy to all homes that qualify for a full subsidy.  That halves the total installations to half the number of dwellings, but also remember these would be selected from the more efficient installation sites.  Total installation fees to cover 31.9 MILLION homes would mean power from the sun to create a more robust power grid and to help support a more broad electric car transportation base.

The added electric input from solar would also reduce dependence on coal, oil and gas … and even with current technology, less efficient solar collectors, the implications are still HUGE.

The real lesson to learn here is that the US and other countries around the world are short sighted on political and nationalistic conflicts and not making decisions for long term benefit … benefits to the country and addressing global change concerns that will certainly confront us for generations to come.

And what of Iraq?

Well, civil unrest in the Arab states recently taught us how the political leadership in Iraq would have been ousted over the same period we could have been installing solar collectors. And the real crime is … mounting debt, lost jobs, deferred clean energy, and avoidance of other benefits.  Is anyone paying attention?

The writer of this article is not particularly political, neither conservative nor liberal, not really Democrat nor Republican … but from an OBJECTIVE view looking at human choices we all can think of … that is the Window’s View!

What do you think?  Have you written a politician a note recently?  Well?

Invite them to the window!

Director, WindowView.org