I wanted to write a diary giving an analysis of the legal context in which the Gonzales hearing would be taking place today. After all, it is this drama that will be the focus of all our attention and that will seem to be the most important development of our news cycle.
Instead, I need to devote one to a news story that has just been published about Iraq that will make no headlines and will go largely unnoticed on most of our blogs. Yet, it is sensational.
Given the sort of items that grab the headlines at the moment, to use the word "sensational" about this latest revelation might tempt some to troll rate me for a deceptive title. They will do so because they fail to recognise that much that drives our world often lies hidden in a deeper undercurrent of a huge ocean, of which we only witness the waves on the surface.
A famous British radical journalist, Claud Cockburn, once said that, if we wanted to understand the world in which we are just players, then we need look only in the pages of the Financial Times. In there you can read everything that truly dictates the events that we witness.
It is not difficult to see Iraq as rather like a disorganised cockfight. A sport that is cruel and ugly, A sport that exists for the benefit of those who bet high stakes on its outcome, for whom the blood is cynically observed as a by-product of the real game of placing big bets and winning heavily against the odds.
Photo: Chinese Government News Site
Well, as the blood becomes greater, so does the potential prize of Iraq. This story was published today in the Financial Times under the headline IRAQ HOLDS TWICE AS MUCH OIL:
Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world's biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies - if the conflict in the country can be resolved.
If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world's third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking Iran.
Look again at the picture of the cockfight. Take your eyes away from the birds taught to kill, and kill effectively. in the centre of the ring. Instead look at those surrounding the small area, those who watch intensely and for whom the real interest and outcome are in the potential winnings that they will get if they have placed their bets with cunning and with long experience of this special way to spill blood in the dust.
The Financial Times recognises that there is a deadly fight going on:
At least 170 people were killed on Wednesday in five co-ordinated car bomb attacks in Shia districts of Baghdad, the deadliest attacks the city has seen since US and Iraqi forces launched a joint security crackdown in February. The attacks came hours after Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister, claimed that Iraqi forces would be in a position to take over primary responsibility for security in all of Iraq's 18 provinces by the end of the year.
How do the punters, the "sportsmen" that form the circle of watchers interpret the scene. The Financial Times analysis tells us:
Ron Mobed of IHS said: "Obviously the security situation is very bad, but when you look at the sub-surface opportunity, there isn't anywhere else like this. Geologically, it's right up there, a gold star opportunity."
Yes, the blood being spilled is great, but this has become the biggest game in town and it has suddenly become bigger. The real movers and shakers among the professional players have flown in from Las Vegas and the rolls of banknotes being thrown into play are twice the size that those who set up the event expected.
Almost all the leading international oil companies and many smaller ones have expressed an interest in working in Iraq.
Where does the Claud Cockburn reference feature in this? If you don't see the result of this geophysical survey as a sensational development, then you are not understanding the intercontinental currents in the depths of the ocean. Whilst we are looking at the spume being ripped off the tops of the waves in the gale force winds and believe that the action is being shaped by Bush and Cheney, we are ignoring the much greater forces that are at play.
Cindy Sheehan and all the others standing in the rain in protest at Crawford? The Democrats in Congress trying to limit the length of time that the cockfight will be allowed to run? They are being tossed around in their fragile craft.
Bush merely called the cockfight together and takes a pathetic percentage out of the entrance tickets, bewildered by the size that the event has become. The really big game players stand anonymously at the back of the circle of punters, steely eyed, unmoved by the events in the ring, demanding a continuation of the game and excited only by calculating the odds.
You will not find this news in the political records of what is going on in Congress, but it is a sensational development
(Cross posted from ePluribus Media)