Ask Not What Your Country Would Drive for You; Ask What You Would Drive for Your Country

This from the Center for Security Policy.

Last week, President Bush addressed the Nation to describe a "way forward" in the War for the Free World and its Battle of Iraq. Next week, he will give another address, one that may ultimately prove even more decisive in determining our success in the global conflict of which the Iraq theater is but one part.

On January 23rd, Mr. Bush is scheduled to report on the State of the Union. At the moment, it appears that he is poised to make the main feature of that report his ideas for addressing what is, arguably, the most critical threat to that Union: the United States' persistent and growing practice of purchasing vast quantities of oil from people who wish us ill.

In the same speech a year ago, the President declared that America is "addicted to oil." Now, he evidently intends to do something practical about it.

Gone will be the misplaced emphasis on "the hydrogen economy." The promise of hydrogen remains just that - a promise. The solutions to our reliance on, at best, unstable regimes and, at worst, downright hostile ones for our energy supplies lie elsewhere. And, fortunately, they are closer at hand than hydrogen-related technologies and the infrastructure that will make them useable on a truly national basis.

The time has come for George W. Bush to take a page from one of the most famous addresses to the Nation in our history: John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in 1961. Just as JFK called on Americans to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," Mr. Bush must now urge our citizens to do something specific for their country - and its future safety and economic well-being: Help retool the U.S. automotive fleet on an accelerated basis, replacing gas-guzzling vehicles with new FFVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Do it not just out of self-interest. Do it for your country.