A casual internet search regarding the total long term costs of the war on terror and the Iraq War is somewhere north of $1 Trillion. My gut tells me this is money that will be like pouring water onto the hot Arabian Desert sands, never to be seen again, but hopefully I will be wrong. Perhaps this number will seem "cheap" 10 years from today, but I thought about what could be done with $1 Trillion dollars if that money had been spent here in the good old USA.

I acknowledge many people of good faith and conscience have come to different viewpoints regarding our foreign policies and I respect that. The point of this short note is a wishful "what if" if we would make our domestic problems our #1 concern, so here goes my homespun to do list.

As domestic spending czar with $1 Trillion dollars, I would do the following:

1. I would modernize all of our ports, airports and points of entry with state of art facilities, technology and scanners to prevent unlawful entry by individuals and/or terrorist threats or bombs, while easing the ability of people and commerce to move with a minimum of disruption.
2. I would assist all airlines to modernize all airframes with anti-missile defense countermeasure systems.
3. I would secure all borders to prevent illegal entry.
4. I would modernize our public transportation network to run on electric buses and trains powered by nuclear power generated electricity and other power sources.
5. I would triple our nuclear generating capacity.
6. I would deploy huge windmill farms on the coasts and the Dakotas to remove most of the electrical grid from fossil fuels.
7. I would charge all automakers to transition to diesel-hybrids for maximized fuel economy and fuel flexibility.
8. I would start a "Manhattan Project" or "Apollo Moon Program" scale initiative to charge our best and brightest to create a new industry with the goal of energy independence for the US. I would charge NASA and our research universities to lead the charge for renewable-alternative energy solutions and an energy infrastructure redesign.
9. I would modernize our freight train and water based freight networks to create modern inland port hubs to maximize fuel economy for bulk freight and reduce long haul trucking traffic on our freeways and transition to more fuel efficient truck short hauling.
10. I would make common cause with other energy hungry nations to create a consortium for the development of alternative energy technologies.
11. I would assure our FBI and CIA have the necessary resources and tools to find any terrorists in the country and have them deported.
12. I would seek to reduce military spending sufficiently over the next 10 years to find yet another $1 Trillion to create another list of must do's to create security and energy independence. (Or allow the defense contractors to participate in our new energy and security industries).

I believe we could probably eliminate 99% of terrorist risk here at home, create hundreds of thousands of new high paying jobs, have secure borders, create whole new industries and technologies, create a new generation of American leadership in energy technologies, and lay a new foundation for securing our standard of living for the next generation.

Just a wish list. Maybe you can think of some ways to spend $1 Trillion. At present, we seem to lack a national vision and resolve for energy independence and domestic security, so it'll have to come from us. Let me know how you would spend $1 Trillion here at home.