Let's start this off with a couple of questions about the oil. (the $50,000,000,000,000 question [yes, that's the right number of zeros]).
On the pretext of fighting international terrorism the United States is trying to establish control over the world's richest oil reserves, Leonid Shebarshin, ex-chief of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service, who heads the Russian National Economic Security Service consulting company, said in an interview for the Vremya Novostei newspaper.
Using the anti-terrorist cause as a cover the United States has occupied Afghanistan, Iraq and will soon move to impose their "democratic order" on the Greater Middle East, Shebarshin said. "The U.S. has usurped the right to attack any part of the globe on the pretext of fighting the terrorist threat," Shebarshin said.
Referring to his meeting with an unnamed al-Qaeda expert at the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization in the U.S., Shebarshin said: "We have agreed that [al-Qaeda] is not a group but a notion."
"The fight against that all-mighty ubiquitous myth deliberately linked to Islam is of great advantage for the Americans as it targets the oil-rich Muslim regions," Shebarshin emphasized.
More info here.
Essentially this is the same argument that is put forth in the "Power of Nightmares" that argument being that a threat from some ghostly outside danger is very useful in creating a compliant populace. One that, oh say for example, would endorse acts of agression if they believed (beforehand) that the act was for defense and said populace believed (afterhand) that the act was really for cultural ideology. An interesting article...let's see if anyone else is thinking the same thing.
Ooh, here's one.
The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.
Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.
In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".
"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.
[
more info on the the BBC here] This second plan would most likely be the same one that
VP Cheney went to the Supreme Court to keep from having to share with the public he is supposed to be serving (Cheney is definitely more 'big oil' than he is 'neocon'. Which is to say, he'd rather rape you regular than rape you anal...were he a rapist.)
So how did that work out? Hmm, it seems that the answer is 'not so well'.
Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may become known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.
Two years ago, it seemed likely that Iraq, with the world's third-largest petroleum reserves, would become a hypercharged gusher once U.S. troops toppled Saddam Hussein. But chaos and guerrilla sabotage have slowed the flow of oil to a comparative trickle.
The price of crude on global markets hit an all-time record Friday, and oil experts say U.S. consumers are likely to keep feeling the pinch.
"Global supply hasn't kept up, and it isn't likely to in the near future, and one of the causes is Iraq," said John Lichtblau, chairman of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation in New York.
[
mas aqui] Now, obviously, this cannot be the fault of the United States. Neocon ideology (endorsed by the last election) states quite clearly that the U.S. is without fault. Hence, it can't be our fault. Duh.
Fault can, however, be quickly laid at the feet at anyone who opposes the ideology. Like...say...Turkey.
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that he is upset that the US can not enter Iraq from the north (Iraqi-Turkish border) during the Iraq war and added that fomented the resistance to grow in the aftermath of the occupation. The level of insurgency in Iraq would not be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade through Turkey, a NATO ally, Rumsfeld said Sunday.
"Given the level of the insurgency today, two years later, clearly if we had been able to get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north, in through Turkey, more of the Iraqi, Saddam Hussein, Baathist regime would have been captured or killed," Mr Rumsfeld told Fox News. "The insurgency today would be less."
Which is to say, this next bit is
totally Turkey's fault.
BAGHDAD, 21 March (IRIN) - Pharmacist Zeena Qushtiny was dressed in the latest Western fashion and wearing a sparkling diamond necklace when she was taken at gunpoint from her pharmacy in Baghdad by insurgents.
Her body was found 10 days later with two bullet holes close to her eyes.
She was covered in a traditional abaya veil preferred by Islamic conservatives with a message pinned to it saying: "She was a collaborator against Islam", according Qushtiny's family.
Qushtiny was the mother of two young girls and a divorcee. She was a popular professional in the capital and respected for her work but was considered by radicals as being an insult to Islam.
Women activists have been suffering since the last war in Iraq because of calls for improved rights and equality with men in this Muslim country, according to a report by the local Women's NGO association.
During Saddam Hussein's regime, women could dress less conservatively in the big cities and would not be punished, according to female activists.
But now women say they are no longer safe and decapitated female corpses have begun turning up in recent weeks with notes bearing the word "collaborator" pinned to their chests, according to Colonel Subhi al-Abdullilah, a senior police investigator.
More on this one here.
Now, this isn't to say that some people aren't happy with the situation, quite the contrary, some are ecstatic.
Iraqis see the finish line, the finish line of freedom and democracy and a functioning nation. We can smell it, taste it, and like a sprinter, one who has broken his legs, but who has a heart full of passion, we will crawl there no matter what the cost. No matter what we must endure, we have realized what we can become, and that is the biggest result of the last two years.
Noone can take that from us. Not the terrorists, not those who want to question the good of the removal of Saddam, not those who want to reduce our glory for politics, none.
We have been brought from darkness to light. And not only has the future been made better for Iraq, but the martyrs of our nation, their blood is watering the roots of democracy across the world. We are watching our neighbors come closer to the light, and this only pushes us more, and makes us stronger in our burning desire to reach the finish line, to realize the dream that our people have had for so long.
And some, it must be said, see a slightly different thing. And
it's the same old thing.Anyway and back to my story, and just after taking two photos for it, one of the police man suddenly took my camera and dragged me to there vehicle, telling me that "who allowed you to take photos? You are a terrorist and trying to sell these photos!!"
So I became a terrorist!! and as trying to clarify everything I told him "That these are old Saddam cops procedures and am just student at that college..."
Am pretty sure now that it was not the best line to pick up, since that cop picked his walkie-talkie and reported to the police station, "A suspect has been captured near the scene, holding a camera and offended the police men!!"
The answer was "Hold the suspect for more interrogations later"
Finally, and just for shits and giggles, I should be mention the fact during the media blackout that is Terri Schiavo/Jacko combo punch,
Singapore is out.
SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) - Singapore's biggest navy warship returned home from the Gulf on Saturday, marking an end to the city-state's military operations in Iraq, but the close U.S. ally said it would continue to contribute where necessary.
The Defence Ministry said the "RSS Resolution", a Landing Ship Tank (LST) used to transport troops and equipment, and its 180 servicemen had returned to Singapore after a three-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf.
"There are currently no personnel and military assets in the Gulf region," a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said.
And then there were...less...but we're still there.
Frankly, and I joke a lot about things I certainly shouldn't be joking about (anal rape!), but seriously...I, for one, will not consider Iraq a 'free country' until they have no foreign soldiers on their shores. I wouldn't accept anything less here, and they shouldn't accept anything less there. If that makes me a pessimist..then you are a ideologue. If that makes me a literalist, then you got me there. I can't call anyone something that I wouldn't call myself in the same situation.
I would never consider myself "free" if my country was occupied by foreign soldiers. End of story.
[mirrored from Quantum Philosophy.net]