CCPA Monitor: April 2003

George Bush is right. The world is a dangerous place for Americans, but not primarily for the reasons he gives. The average American is far more likely to be the victim of an automobile accident, murder by a fellow American, or heart disease than at the hands of a terrorist. So if Bush wants to make America a safer place the US $100 billion or more he plans to spend on an Iraqi war must be diverted.

      

Terror on the Highways

 

Cars kill. Every day 121 Americans die in traffic accidents — 45,000 in the year 2000. In the eight long years of the Vietnam War a total of 58,000 Americans died.  Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for Americans in the prime years of 15 to 34. The death toll of all of America’s wars falls far short of that of traffic fatalities since 1900.

  

The emissions produced by the fuel needed to propel people into each other is also hazardous. Vehicle emissions together with other forms of air pollution have been taking 30,000 to 60,000 lives each year since the 1970s. The toxic chemical cloud above American cities is purely of domestic origin.     

Cars use eight million barrels of oil each day. The addiction to imported oil does violence to the US the balance of trade (Gallon Newsletter) accounting for about 75% of the trade deficit. And it has resulted in an outflow of US $1 trillion dollars since 1970 while giving certain unsavoury regimes the money to buy arms.

 

Terror in the Alleys

Guns kill. Or at least people kill, most often accompanied by a gun. The country’s 250 million guns are not as fatal as its 200 million cars but they still accounted for over 10,000 of the 15,500 murders committed in 2000.  There are 5.5 murders for every 100,000 people in the US — three times the Canadian rate and totaling 542 murders.

And guns are the dominant weapon of choice for killing young people, accounting for 6,000 deaths(check) in the year 2000.

 

Guns are needed by Americans to protect themselves from each other. No one is safe, not even the President.  Two of America’s last 10 presidents have been shot, one fatally. The mystery is not why presidents like JFK get shot, but with the abundance of firearms, how any president survives.  

Americans increasingly fear each other. By 1997 a full 5%, up from 3.3% in 1982, of the men and 1% of women was under some form of correctional supervision. This supervision is not cheap. It cost $50 billion in 1999 —an increase of 442% from 1982 — according to the U.S. Dept of Justice. And it’s getting harder to figure who is doing the killing. Only about 63% of murders were solved in 2000 compared to 79% in 1976. In Canada 75% of murders were solved in 2000,

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Terror in other arteries

 

Obesity kills. One third of Americans or 59 million are obese — more than twice the entire population of Iraq. Obesity increases a person’s risk of a number of serious conditions including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and some types of cancer, according to the US Centre for Disease Control.  Americans spend eight billion hours stuck in traffic jams, which may explain why they are not getting the exercise experts say contributes to an estimated 300,000 preventable deaths.    

 

And when Americans do need medical care, a full 41 million of them don’t even have the medical insurance they need to pay the bills.

  

Reducing Terror

If Bush wants to improve the security of Americans his Homeland Security Office can begin by getting Americans out of their cars. Safer mass transit like trains and buses will not only protect their limbs but improve the air. Energy efficiency, better urban planning, and more renewable wind and solar energy will also wean America from a dangerous addiction that is being exposed in some odd international behaviour.

Once Bush asks his military to put their weapons away he can curtail the number of firearms at home, then turn his attention to root causes like social injustice, economic inequality, and the scourge of drug addiction. And his intelligence officers can be diverted to figuring out who is doing all the killing.

 

And when he is done that, he can turn his propaganda machine to the task of getting regular Americans, 70% of whom do not exercise regularly, to get off the couch and move around. The improved air and atmosphere would do them a world of good.

   

Surely there are better ways to spend this year’s US $407 billion military budget than by carrying out a war in Iraq that almost no one wants, and will lead to new terrorism. Re-deploying the military budget to domestic issues will save American lives.