Issue # 9 / 2005

SUV Drivers Help Fuel Iraq War

by David Thundershield Queen

It supports war and keeps us dangerously addicted to foreign oil (most large reserves are contained in the largely non-democratic Arab world) to drive a gas-guzzling SUV/large truck — unless one absolutely needs it for work or to get to a backroads home. Most SUV's never leave the pavement!

In 1990 SUV'S constituted only 5% of auto sales. Now, they constitute 55% of all new auto sales. On average, SUV'S (especially the large V-8 varieties) get about half the gas mileage of regular automobiles.

That's a lot of fossil fuel wastefully burned — creating excess CO2 and accelerated global warming. Also, how smart is it to be needlessly driving a gas-guzzler, with gas reaching $3.00 per gallon?

People with large transport needs would be both wise and patriotic to drive a station wagon or a small-cylinder van. Older Americans should have learned this lesson during the 70's oil-embargo. Vans, built on a wider car platform, are also much safer than SUV's and don't rollover easily, killing or maiming their occupants.

Besides being patriotic, serious energy conservation would give our government less excuse to continue its disingenuous, bloody, elective, oiladventure in Iraq — that has actually increased terrorism exponentially. Our troops might even come home sooner. Driving around in a unnecessary, wasteful, gas-guzzling SUV belies the message of the popular little yellow ribbons proclaiming that one "supports our troops." We're mainly in Iraq for oil, corporate profits and empire-building — as the "Downing Street memos" and other secret documents clearly show. All the other Bush administration pre-war lies and excuses have now been soundly discredited, including the main one, WMD's.

Our family bicycles, takes buses, walks, or drives economy cars when necessary. We borrow or rent a truck when we need to move large items. Where's the current American sacrifice? In WWII patriotic Americans rationed gas and even basic necessities. The Bush administration has been irresponsible, grossly-negligent, and likely even criminal on both energy and Democracy issues. That's largely due to their deep-pocket connections to big-energy producers (coal, gas, oil) who have been allowed to write their own polluting rules- while we suffer with asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer, along with environmental damage such as acid rain.

We need an administration in Washington that will serve the American public — not just the corporate big-wigs, the military-industrial complex and the ultra-rich. One that will also seriously address Al-Qaeda, terrorism and homeland security— largely neglected with Bush's unnecessary diversion in Iraq. Bush would be wise to mandate much more energy-efficient CAFE standards — that don't exempt SUV's/trucks. This would save Americans multi-millions in fuel costs and result in cleaner air.

We Americans constitute only 4% of the world's population, but produce 25% of all greenhouse gases (which are dangerously warming our planet according to 2,000 of the world's leading climate scientists).

If the Bush Administration chooses to continue its current disastrous, deadly, oil-empire adventure in Iraq, they should be fair and draft SUV drivers first — following the sons and daughters of oil company executives and administration officials!