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Coalition for Peace with Justice
Op-Ed Piece in Winston-Salem Chronicle [to CPWJ Letters page] [ to CPWJ home page] December 5, 2002 WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER On October 26th Community For Peace sponsored a bus to Washington DC to protest the war on Iraq. I was one of the participants, because I do not believe that you can love America without first caring about the Americans that may die in an unnecessary war. Let me explain! I still remember 1973. The oil embargo that year placed Americans in long waiting lines at gas stations. At that time, the US was importing only one third of its oil. Today our imports have increased to two thirds. Unlike the man-made energy crisis then, the next energy crisis will be a direct result of a shortage of cheap oil, and the condition will be a permanent one. The best experts in the field of energy exploration agree that the amount of this country’s commercially producible oil is negligible compared to our needs, and that the largest and second largest remaining oil and gas deposits are located in Saudi Arabia and Iraq respectively. Additionally, they predict the big oil crunch will hit about 2010, followed ten years later by a depletion in natural gas. This information is nothing new. President Carter had originally acted upon it during his presidency by investigating alternatives, but “big oil” was still making profits, and nothing was going to get in their way - not global warming, not fuel-efficiency, and certainly not solar panels. There is yet more to this story. We know that real energy alternatives to fossil fuels exist, because European countries are currently putting them into practice. Conservation, and switching to wind, solar and fuel cells will prepare Europeans countries for whenthe big oil crunch hits. It is what BP (that is: British Petroleum) means by going “beyond petroleum.” We know that the Bush/Cheney Energy Plan calls for increased funding into development of oil and gas, and a decrease in funding for research and development into alternative sources of energy, and energy conservation. This plan is diametrically opposed to what is good for the majority of the people in this country, but easily explained when you consider who did the planning. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the top 100 officials in the Bush Administration have the majority of their personal investments (roughly some $ 150 million) in the traditional energy and natural resource sectors. It would be their personal portfolios that would be protected by using the US military to control the middle-eastern oil reserves. This country is at a critical point in its history, economically, politically, and morally. Unlike 1973, we will not get a second chance to do the right thing. We need to choose. We can pursue a bad idea that serves the profits of a few while jeopardizing the physical and economic well being of the many, or we can make a change, become energy self-sufficient, create good jobs in alternative energy and conservation, and live in peace with the rest of the world. Jeremy Rifkin, one of the nation’s leading experts in new trends in science and technology and a top advisor to corporations and governments alike, in his book The Hydrogen Economy, lays out a perfect plan combining solar energy and fuel cell technology to satisfy all of our future energy needs. These technologies are currently available, are increasingly cost-competitive, and they are completely clean, not generating any of the bad side effects of fossil fuels, such as global warming. Jeremy Rifkin estimates that it would cost this country about one billion dollars to set up the infrastructure for this new technology. Amazingly enough, the cost of going to war with Iraq is estimated to be exactly the same: one billion dollars! January 18th there will be another bus, and another chance to March on Washington to inform our leaders of our desire to stand for peace, for creating jobs, and for energy self-sufficiency. Marching will be my patriotic duty. Mischi Binkley is a member of Community For Peace. For more information on the organization and the trip to Washington DC, please visit www.CommunityForPeace.net [to CPWJ Letters page] [ to CPWJ home page] |
