Age of SUVs is over

I am bothered by the sight of all the new oversized SUVs that cruise down our streets in defiance of common sense. Our demand of oil, as symbolized by the SUV, is an underlying reason for going to war with Iraq and the eventual occupation of that country. The Bush administration has used fear and diversion so that the reality of an awful war is obscured. It is especially obscured for those who have surrendered reason to a fear-mongering demagogue.

The connection between war and our insatiable demand of oil is easy to understand if Americans are simply willing to pay attention. The big SUVs that pound our pavement require ridiculous amounts of gas. The gas that is refined from oil. The oil industry makes an unconscionable profit from the control and sale of oil products.

Iraq has the second largest untapped reserve of oil in the world. The Bush administration has very close ties to the oil industry. Bush uses fear to get the American people to submit to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Oil companies and related industries make billions from the control of Iraqi oil. American oil companies are currently negotiating a lucrative profit-sharing agreement with the new Iraqi government.

Does anybody still believe that we would be in Iraq if it did not have oil? The truth is available, but you won't find it in the network and cable entertainment news media which is controlled by a handful of wealthy, right-wing individuals and corporations.

Historically, many wars have been waged over resources. Iraq is no different, only this time President Bush dressed this war up as something else by playing on our fears. Fear is an enemy of reason.

Those Americans that are not paying attention and buying a new SUV are inadvertently supporting the war and war profiteering. What is it going to take to end the madness and return to reason?
Mark Rackow
Agoura Hills