Number One. Would any other number smell as sweet?

Athletes, news organizations and dodge ball players all jockey in their own way for the glorious title of Number One. The first marathoner to cross the finish line, the one who broke the story first and the one who was chosen first for the team headed by the popular kid. And, the winner enjoys the sweet smell of success bestowed by that solitary number.

Well, El Paso gets to celebrate a sweet-smelling first by being listed in an online article on the Forbes magazine website as the #1 mid-sized city for jobs. Woo hoo, we're number one! We're number one! Better than being up there on the the sweatiest city or fattest city lists.

But, is that number one ranking so sweet-smelling after all? Let's read more of what the article's author, Joe Kotkin, has to say. He notes, "the importance of the war effort in stimulating local economies" then later on states, "fossil fuels pay the bills and create strong economies." 

Actually, fossil fuel and war are intimately related. War activities require great quantities of fuel for tanks, planes, trucks, helicopters, Humvees and other means of military transport, as well as daily military base operations. And creating access to fossil fuels in other lands keeps war going, though our government formally de-emphasizes this.

Now back to El Paso. Currently, Ft. Bliss is in the midst of a multi-year, massive expansion (to support current and future war efforts), accompanied by major highway construction projects (fossil fuel paying the bills at work here) to support that expansion. Both have contributed to the creation and maintenance of jobs during the recent recession. 

But, eventually the expansion and highway construction will end. The construction and highway workers, engineers and administrative staff will be left looking for scarce jobs here, or moving elsewhere for work. And, El Paso will end up sliding down in the jobs ranking. 

So, despite war being touted as a sweet-smelling job creation factor, it ultimately ends up having a stench that will never go away, even after all the jobs do.