An American activist group, campaigning to reduce US reliance on Middle Eastern oil, has launched a series of provocative television ads that suggest a link between driving gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and terror financing. US oil money, they say, supports Middle East countries that bankroll terrorist networks.
Dubbed ‘The Detroit Project’, the new campaign screened across America is designed to change the driving habits of American consumers by convincing them that energy wastefulness affects not only the environment, but also US foreign policy.
”As we fight the war on terrorism, we need to commit [an] all-out effort to freeing ourselves from the nations and terrorists holding us hostage through our addiction to oil,” the nonprofit group asserts. "We want to encourage customers to connect the dots and make socially responsible consumer choices."
The 30-second ads, paid for through donations, are parodies of the US government’s new anti-drug campaign that links drug money with funding terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. Several TV stations have refused to air the ads, rejecting them as too "controversial."
The anti-SUV campaign was created by a group called Americans for Fuel Efficient Cars. The vehicles' high fuel consumption does not seem to bother 16 million SUV owners in the United States, and jeeps now account for 21 percent of the American auto market.
The US imports 12 percent of its oil from the Middle East, equivalent to 2.5 million barrels of oil per day (bopd). Saudi Arabia is the US’ second largest foreign supplier of oil, after Venezuela. In 2002, the US imported 1.5 million bopd from Saudi Arabia, 800,000 bopd from Iraq and 300,000 from Algeria.
While American consumers are urged to dispose of their jeeps, customers line up to purchase American-made military-style Hummer vehicles in Kuwait. The booming demand is from international news media procuring vehicles ahead of a possible war on Iraq. Going each for over $100,000, a diesel-powered Hummer are the civilian version of the military Humvee that was used in the Persian Gulf War. A used vehicle costs $35,000. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
