[Mb-civic] Guzzle gas, and pretend - Derrick Z. Jackson - The Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

<>Guzzle gas, and pretend
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist  |  August 17, 2005

GASOLINE IS over $2.50 a gallon, the death toll of American soldiers in 
Iraq is over 1,850, and what patriotic, heroic displays of sacrifice can 
we find on the American landscape?

Bigger garages. Bigger houses. New fuel economy standards that will omit 
the biggest cars. Hoo-aah.

Brave Marines we are. From the halls of McMansions to the steps of our 
SUVs, we fight our exurban battles, ripping up every living tree.

Next month will mark four years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. 
Four years is a time period often associated with sending children off 
to institutions of higher learning in the assumption they will become 
members of an enlightened citizenry.

But the four years since 9/11 have come and gone with no sign that the 
United States sees the light. As soldiers pay the ultimate price in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, we continue to be toy soldiers, the invulnerable 
warriors of consumption. No report of a real soldier dying from a 
roadside bomb, no administration assertion that fades into falsehood, 
not even fill-ups that hit $40 and $50 a tank has spurred us to question 
our schizophrenic nature.

For four years, Americans have waved flags and stuck ''Support the 
Troops" magnets on the backs of their cars. Such acts, of course, stem 
from sincere sentiments we all share for their safety. But we can no 
longer escape our responsibility in one of the most insincere wars in 
the nation's history.

We have allowed a president to send off the sons and daughters of the 
working class and the poor to invade Iraq, killing thousands of innocent 
Iraqi working class and poor along the way. As each day passes, the fact 
that no Osama has been flushed out, the fact that no weapons of mass 
destruction have been found, and the fact that there was never a tie 
between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 becomes not just Bush's responsibility 
but ours as well.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/17/guzzle_gas_and_pretend/

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