On the road to nowhere, southeast of Baghdad.

Front page, Sunday August 2, 2009, New York Times - a telling picture , large, bold but delicate. Each of the 7 young men among tombstones of fallen friends, seem as if placed by a movie director, each conveying a story - all are tied together. Two small American flags define the stone of their friend Sgt. Brandon Wallace (and Sgt. Joshua Schmidt).

The man on the left, sitting in the grass, Sgt. Jacob Blaylock, would become a suicide victim. The picture was taken in 2007. “Over the next year, three more soldiers from the 1451st (Transportation Company) - Sgt. Jeffery Wilson, Sgt. Roger Parker and specialist Skip Brinkley - would take their own lives.” In Vietnam, the jungle was the location of combat. In the now, in desert wilderness, who would have thought of driving a truck as combat.

For Wallace and Schmidt, death came when they were “escorting trucks full of gasoline” along a dangerous highway, southeast of Baghdad. Sgt. Blaylock had been riding in the gunner position in the scout truck but transferred to the rear in a Humvee. Then the first truck hit a homemade bomb buried in the road. He told his group later, “It was supposed to be me.”

The article talks about the guilt soldiers feel of being the one to live while others die. In between the words of pain, I couldn’t get that mental image out of my mind - trucks loaded with gasoline, then a huge explosion…and no hope of survivors.

Those deaths could have been prevented. Since 2004, gasoline/diesel) did not need to be used to power ground operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

This breakthrough technology was the work of inventor, Peter Sumaruck and his Zero-Amp Tech. It was available in 1991, but it was not until 2004 that the Army asked Mr. Sumaruck to build a working prototype of a generator that would operate without diesel. Previous generators use 57 gallons of diesel every 24 hours and produces 25 kW of power.

For that application, Pete’s generators put out 35 kW; they are powered by electricity but use no batteries, and once started keep on going indefinitely (for years). They produce no emissions so no pollution. The plan was to build 500 mobile slave generators for Iraq. Power for lights, appliances, medical and food services, all by electricity, no gasoline.

Just think how many fewer gasoline supply trucks would be on the roads, thus bringing down the incidences of roadside explosions.

Why don’t we have these generators now. Because oil is too lucrative; people are too greedy…and only important inventors are suppressed - five attempts on Pete’s life and sabotage to his person. First, the government was so enthusiastic, but when he actually produced as promised, two Texas legislators shelved the project…as well as first destroying the prototype, then removing most of the evidence. But Pete had rendered it inoperable when he heard they were coming.

Our American economy and government vocally champions an open marketplace but when it actually appears, they pull back and destroy. It will be so easy to put this technology to work for the benefit of everyone, including our soldiers.

War marks the apex of astonishment…if we must go, can’t we do our best to better the odds.