Most folks in the United States would agree that we need to be energy independent or at least produce the lion's share of the energy resources and oil we need.
However, I am one who believes that we need to be an energy exporting nation, why you ask? Because, we should be selling producing and selling our excess to other industrializing nations and emerging markets, they need oil too and rather than compete with them for this oil, heck, lets sell it to them and make money doing it.
Imagine the economic prosperity we could have as an oil exporting nation? We would have a definite hedge against OPEC or we could even join them, after all, if you cannot beat them, join them.
How on Earth could we gear up to do that in any reasonable time table you ask? Simple really, make Iraq a "territory" like Guam or Puerto Rico, use the oil there to sell to China and the mainland.
Use that oil money to revitalize Iraq and serve the people there.
Use that money to pay off the Trillion Dollars that have been spent on the war and peace-keeping efforts.
The United States would then be sitting on the largest known oil reserves in all of the Middle East and we could provide for Iraq, making that civilization one of the greatest in the World and providing inexpensive fuel for the US and sell the excess to China.
So, when people say we need oil and energy independence, I say, nope, that's not good enough, we should be exporting oil and we ought to be doing it soon.