Now I haven't seen much information about this story in the mainstream media (Click on link above). It's possible that I'm missing it somewhere between watching endless updates on Michael Jackson's courtroom drama, and brave reporters standing outside in some Hurricane down south. But I think I'd remember hearing that while we're fighting the "war on terrorism" in Iraq, progress slows in protecting this country from another serious terrorist attack here at home.
Is it true we live in the cold, hard reality of a corporate war? Unfortunately, As global oil supply reaches a plateau, demand increases making continued government funding for a long-term occupation in Iraq seem certain. Justified behind the veil of international terrorism, our commercial interests in controlling oil production continue unabated in that country. While more countries, like China, modernize making the control of this diminishing natural resource critical, the noose around Iraq's neck tightens. In a sense, the gas from the cars we drive just might be paid for with American blood.
Meanwhile, money that is spent for the war in Iraq is diverted from Homeland Security coffers, and the needed work to protect this nation from real terrorist threats. Is there really a link between the two? I'd say yes. Between the number of defeated bills designed to protect Americans at home, and the quantity of no-bid private contracts being awarded by the military, it's clear that, "Conservatives in the Senate are failing to protect Americans here at home."
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I don't care what anyone says (SUV owner or not), the vehicles that are clogging up the highways and are bursting out of the spaces in our parking lots are gas guzzling behemoth killing machines and, yes, there is a correlation between what we drive and our insatiable need to have access to oil supplies. Knowing what we know about the consumption (and eventual depletion) of the fossil fuel needed to make the gas to feed these beasts makes it deporable that there are no regulations on who can own these vehicles, or better yet, why they need to own these vehicles. The fact they they are so numerous demonstrates to any thinking and globally conscious person that the American people are a gluttonous and selfish group of people. The people that drive these gigantic vehicles are usually alone and they probably do not have a job that requires them to own a huge vehicle to haul lots of stuff, unless you count that supersized family that goes camping twice a year with half of their household goods stuffed into the back of the SUV or the time they needed to haul the wood for the deck that was put up in 1997.
Some time back, a local news station ran a survey that asked people if they thought that there was any connection between the huge vehicles that are being driven in this country and the fact that the U.S. starts wars with countries with mass quantities of oil, that whole "blood for oil" thing. The responses of the minority agreed that there was a connection and that we should find a way to stop the madness of driving "recreational" vehicles at the expense of depeting a valuable natural resource. The majority whined vehemently about their "rights to own whatever they want" and that they felt "safer" in these domestic tanks. I won't dispute that these vehicles are safer, since it is a fact that the driver of an SUV (if it doesn't happen to roll over first) will sustain fewer injuries in an accident with a smaller, more fuel efficient car. The poor sap with the environmental conscious and global attitude who bought the little Saturn gets turned into a human pancake by the SUV driver who squashes him on the road while he was watching a DVD. But that's another issue.
Do the cars we drive have anything to do with why we want to control the world's supply of oil? No one really wants to say, but I'm guessing that if we did a test, maybe asking auto makers to downsize the SUVs and trucks so that our demand for oil doesn't dominate every waking moment of our political leaders' thoughts. Then, when everyone is driving reasonably sized vehicles again, highways deaths are down, pollution decreases, the need to bully countries out of their precious oil may decrease. Then maybe our political leaders can focus their energy on domestic affairs, you know those unimportant things like unemployment, the economy, education, health care and national security to name a few.
Who is to blame for this problem? Idealistic me says it is the choices each of us makes. Sometime in the last 30 years, Americans have lost any sense of "what I do counts," on a personal, local and global level. Get a conscience people! Stop being so selfish about your little life! Every single thing you do does matter. Ironically, as a country we have mastered recycling in order to protect the environment, but that's acceptable inconvenience. It doesn't infringe upon our rights to drive whatever we want or to have the fun that we think we deserve at the rest of the world's expense; it's "pc" to recycle but not to choose a smaller, more fuel efficient car. As with most things American, it just doesn't make sense.
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