"Bush, himself the most intellectually backward American president of my political lifetime, is surrounded by advisers whose bellicosity is exceeded only by their political, military and diplomatic illiteracy."
Surely does sugar coat his words.<g>
With Cheney's speech, I was again pondering why the administration, with so much vociferous opposition was proceeding with its war plans. Its easy to dismiss this as just the mindless effort of some right wing nuts. And that possibility shouldn't be disregarded, but yesterday I tried to come up with some alternatives. I adopted as a premiss that the administration had a well reasoned plan and any appearances to the contrary was because of info that I wasn't privy to.
There's another anomaly that keeps popping up this past year. That's the obvious problem between this country and Saudi Arabia. We know who the hijackers were and the problems associated with the Wahhabi madrassa are well documented. Yet at every opportunity, the administration goes out of its way to profess how cordial our relations with the Saudis are.
Dubya and Dick are a couple of oil and gas boyz. If there's anything this administration understands, it's the oil biz. The country has a fragile economy. Even a hint of a serious oil problem could be disastrous. Both the subtleties and the significance of oil for the economy are not foreign to the Bush administration.
Those that follow the news, know that sometimes you get your best coverage right after an event. Remember last fall in the weeks just after 9/11, there was considerable discussion in the media about put activity in the options of airline and insurance stocks. This activity occurred not only in NY, but on various European bourses. Our government was going to "look into" it. Then nothing. Just a void. No we found this and it's nothing, or we found that and it has serious implications. Just nothing.
Now let's get quite speculative here. Suppose when the put activity was "looked into", it was traceable to various Saudi interests. If this country comes down on Saudi Arabia, oil prices go through the roof and the economy tanks. So what do you do? Maybe you consider an alternative source.
Iraq's been a "thorn in our side" for a decade. It's pursuit of WMD's means that this thorn will only pierce deeper. And Iraq has oil. Not a little, but "oodles and gobs". More than enough to solve any oil problems that might occur while we "dealt with" Saudi Arabia. Moreover, most observers believe we'll have to occupy Iraq for years to successfully gestate a democracy. All that time, We would control that oil flow.
Now in the modern world, you don't just go in and grab another country's resources. You discuss the threat that country posses to its neighbors and to the world. You talk about liberating its people. You never mention the oil consequences of the endeavor. And you certainly don't tell American parents that their children are to be sacrificed to secure an oil supply.
Now this is just all speculation, and from a paranoid mind. <g> I remember standing on a front porch in '68 while listening to the crackle of small arms fire from a riot several blocks distant. In response to a statement that I didn't understand politics, I was told to "think dirty".
lurqer |
