Pubdate: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 Source: Contra Costa Times (CA) Copyright: 2002 Contra Costa Newspapers Inc. Contact: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/contact_us/feedback_np2 Website: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96 Author: Christopher R. Lucas AMERICANS MUST REMEDY OIL ADDICTION Because of our mass addiction to wasteful oil consumption, our government consorts like a crack addict with that corrupt and perfidious petroleum pimp, Saudi Arabia, a barbaric nation of polygamous patriarchs without democracy or even the most basic emancipation of women. Shackled to our addiction to over consumption of oil, President Bush is meek and gentle with the Saudi Arabian back-stabbers. No nationality is more connected to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks than the Saudi Arabian, but the Bush administration simply accepted the Saudi refusal to provide information about possible suspects connected to the Sept. 11 attacks. If we cannot quit our self-destructive oil addiction, we can at least cut back. But we will never see the White House creating ads that urge conservation as a way to deprive the Saudis of funds for jihad against America. Vice President Dick Cheney, no stranger to investments in Saudi Arabia, once chided conservation as contrary to the American lifestyle. That deep denial makes the hypocrisy and scapegoating of the White House's drugs-support-terrorism ads stink like a fresh oil spill on a pristine tropical beach. Christopher R. Lucas, Concord - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager