This is an announcement from MoveOn regarding a "Patriot's Energy Pledge" website and a notable response by Geoph Kozeny:
MoveOn "Patriot's New Year's SaveABarrel pledge" Listserve Posting:

We'd like to introduce a new campaign highlighting easy ways to reduce America's dependence on oil. It's being launched by our friends Larry Rockefeller and Rob Stuart. We encourage you to take the SaveABarrel pledge as a New Year's resolution. The site will tally your pledge toward a goal of saving 1 million barrels of oil, and includes links to specific actions you can take.

Here's Rob's introduction to the site.

At this moment our young men and women are on foreign soil, risking their lives in a war against terrorism. This war is at least partly related to our critical dependence on oil. America consumes a disproportionate share of world oil resources, which has brought a disproportionate amount of risk to America – risks to our health, safety, economy, and national security.

Since the tragic events of September 11, Americans from all walks of life have wanted to add their own real contributions to the efforts of the thousands of heroes who have served us as public safety officials, in our armed forces, or in other ways.

A new Web Site, Save a Barrel, has been created for people who want to do more. New Year's Day is an excellent time to sign the Patriot's Energy Pledge and resolve to use less oil in the coming year.

Together we can help win the war on terrorism, reduce America’s dependence on oil, stimulate our economy and clean the environment – all at the same time.

Wes Boyd
MoveOn.org 		Geoph Kozeny's Response:

I read the various MoveOn postings, find most of them useful, and pass on a few that seem especially poignant.

However, this "Patriot's Pledge" posting I find to be twisted in a way that encourages very destructive attitudes.

Indeed, it would be valuable to get folks in the US to be conservation minded (or better yet, conservation committed); however, I think it's a big mistake to couch worthwhile ideas in the propagandistic rhetoric of President Bush and his cronies. Specifically, the SaveABarrel posting says:

"At this moment our young men and women are on foreign soil, risking their lives in a war against terrorism...Together we can help win the war on terrorism."

The bombing in Afghanistan is anything but a war on terrorism. It is a selectively-focused military action aimed at a particular terrorist and his network, but it was not targeted because he/they are terrorists but because big business special interests find it convenient to advance their agenda.

If we were fighting a war on terrorism, one of our first steps would be to shut down the School of the Americas (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) at Fort Benning, Georgia, where the US continues to train terrorists every day to carry on the covert business of big business interests.

If folk working for otherwise good causes (such as reducing oil consumption) tie their programs into the language of the global capitalists, then it will end up being one step forward but two steps back. Perpetuating the illusion that the US actions are a "War Against Terrorism" ends up promoting a program of world domination instead of a movement for world peace.

Geoph Kozeny (geoph@ic.org)


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