The cost of war

I try to avoid blogging about politics here, but this has been running through my mind for the last couple of days. I'm sharing it to see if it's a valid idea, not to evangelize my beliefs.

The Iraq War has been going on for five years. During that time, it has cost the United States $500 Billion, and the lives of 4,000 Americans.

Imagine for a moment that instead of invading Iraq five years ago, the government had launched an initiative that put just 10% of that total - $50 Billion - into advanced research projects in alternative energy sources. And in addition, put another $5 Billion (one percent) into homeland security initiatives to prevent another attack on American soil.

Realistically, would we...

• be any closer to energy independence than we are now?
• have a fundamentally different attitude in our foreign policy, with little or no need to "play nice" with OPEC nations?
• have a more stable economy? (less fluctuation, or less relevance, of fossil fuel prices; perhaps higher employment)
• feel more (or less?) secure from extremist terrorism than we do now?

Thoughts?