Beefing up U.S. security by developing domestic energy.

IF WINSTON CHURCHILL WERE ALIVE TODAY, I CAN imagine him paraphrasing what he famously uttered in 1954 at a White House luncheon: "It's better to drill, drill, than to jaw, jaw or war, war."

Russia's blitzkrieg into Georgia, the junction of a pipeline that supplies the U.S. and the West with Caspian oil, demonstrates why the security of our nation and the security of our European allies could be strengthened considerably by environmentally friendly development of our domestic energy resources, both on- and offshore. Russia seeks a chokehold on the West's energy windpipe. Placing one of our major pipelines under its thumb is a giant step toward achieving this nefarious goal. We must counter the bear.

Once upon a time, we were proud to call ourselves the Arsenal of Democracy. Now is the time to become the free world's strategic energy reserve. Not only should we drill, drill, on the Outer Continental Shelf, we should encourage the construction of new facilities to liquefy the gas and export it to our allies in Europe and Asia. In the long run, it also might discourage the enslavement of defenseless countries by the Russian bully and blackmail by the world's other energy tyrants.

DRILLING AND PRODUCING certainly would enrich us as a nation and generate new revenue to help pay down our enormous national debt. The liquefied-natural-gas market sizzles. Australia, Russia, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago, and Egypt all are investing heavily in LNG production plants to profit from soaring worldwide demand.

The world's largest producer right now is Indonesia, which exported 1.1 trillion cubic feet of LNG in 2002, 21% of the world's total exports, according to the Department of Energy. Most of that gas was imported by Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

Algeria is the world's second-largest producer, exporting 935 billion cubic feet of product to France, Belgium, Spain, and Turkey. Malaysia ranks third, exporting some 741 billion cubic feet, primarily to Japan.