REAL PATRIOTISM: OUR LOVE AFFAIR WITH MIDEAST OIL FUELS TERRORISM

A public service announcement that's showing up on various television
channels offers the message that young people who are buying drugs are
indirectly financing global narcoterrorism. It's a unique approach in
the country's war on drugs that shows America's youth there's nothing
innocent or harmless about the drug culture.

Whether this particular element of the drug war will be successful is
anyone's guess. But it does force young people to consider the
ramifications of what they do: Buy drugs, fuel terrorism. If they are
good Americans, the thought is they won't want to fill the purses of
terroristic drug lords.

Maybe we ought to apply the same thoughts to our gluttonous affair
with Middle Eastern oil.

Think about it. Every time we fill up our tanks with gasoline, chances
are we're funneling money to Mideast countries whose profits often go
to finance terror campaigns worldwide. Of course, some of the money
spent on gasoline and other fuels doesn't go back to the Middle East,
but enough does to keep these countries flush with cash that they seem
all too willing to share with terrorist groups.

True, there is a great distinction between our need and/or dependence
on foreign oil and the desires of some to buy illegal drugs to abuse.
Our vehicles are as much a part of our everyday lives and our American
culture as anything and to be truthful we simply cannot do without
them completely. But we can do our best to conserve, thereby
diminishing the monetary returns to the Middle East that too often
fall into the hands of those who wish us considerable harm.

After Sept. 11, the hue and cry was for more Americans to become
patriotic and stand up for their country. So we pasted flags on our
cars and called ourselves patriotic Americans. But it takes more
sacrifice than that.

What better way to be patriotic, and help to defend ourselves against
self-financed terrorism, than to give Middle Eastern countries that
financially back terrorism a big Bronx cheer and wean ourselves off
their oil?