SUvs and wartime sacrifices

We've all seen the movies from World War II and the sacrifices that people back home had to make. Many types of foods or materials were rationed or weren't available at all. People knew there was a war going on; the war very much affected their everyday lives.

Today American military forces are involved in fighting in many countries. But unless we know someone in the military, our lives back home haven't changed at all. It has really, really amazed me that we don't have leaders exhorting us to do our part to diminish our dependence on foreign oil - by driving less, by carpooling, by using bikes or public transportation, and most importantly, by not continuing our love affair with either SUVs or gas-guzzling sports cars. This period in our history really seems like the most opportune of times to lead the nation in viewing fuel efficient vehicles as patriotic... To point out to us that we use the most world resources of any nation, even those with more people... and that maybe, just maybe, that's not a good thing...

Politicians and government manipulate us all the time. Why not use those skills to help us walk more softly on the world, and at the same time, become more independent of those who might abuse us? They could have started a nation-wide movement to help us see ourselves in a new light - Americans as world-conscious, Americans as people who conserve resources rather than use than up, Americans as people who leave some of the world for the developing countries, Americans as something more than gluttonous consumers... it could all start by encouraging people to see fuel efficient vehicles as patriotic...

But of course, if you're a government in bed with big business and the oil industry, you're going to manipulate us instead to keep spending, to keep using up resources, and to keep supporting wars designed to maintain our dominance over the the "foreign oil pipeline"...