1) While it would be difficult and expensive, the US is perfectly capable of severing our dependency on foreign oil and the regimes that control it. France derives 80% of their energy from nuke power. We could do the same. Between that and our natural gas and oil reserves, we would do perfectly well. They are discovering natural gas deposits in this country that dwarf those of Russia and Iran combined.
2) The “Greatest Generation” was a direct product of surviving the privations of the Great Depression and was thus able to prosecute and win World War II against two very powerful and determined foes (Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany). Perhaps a little privation and self-sacrifice would do us some good and prepare us to prosecute and win the war we are now in; a war that promises to be generational in nature.