We need to get off oil eventually, but the technology simply isn't there yet.
In the short term, the US should focus manufacturing on synthfuels from coal, so it won't have to import foreign oil, and will thus have less incentive to remain "involved" in the affairs of the Middle East. This would also reduce oil prices worldwide and take some of the financial burden off of nations without large oil/coal reserves.
Whether or not one believes in severe, man-made global warming, we can manufacture so many useful materials from hydrocarbons that it seems stupid and wasteful to be burning them as fuel!
For a longer term strategy, we should be working on highly efficient electric cars, either hybrids run on algae biodiesel or fully electric vehicles with more efficient batteries.
A combination of 4th generation nuclear power, solar thermal plants, photovoltaics, and wind turbines should be able to produce all the power we need.
Of course, the time to start this push was after the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, but apparently one global crisis wasn't enough to get our attention. Maybe $150 per barrel oil, an unpopular war, and talk of environmental catastrophe will be enough this time.
Converting everything (especially transportation) will take a few decades, so it's time to get started!
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