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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries

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To: Raymond Duray who wrote (56586)	11/28/2004 12:27:09 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) of 74559

<You feel remorse about that idiotic escapade now, but in the heat of passion in late 2002, you were spouting some equally ludicrous poppycock about Hussein's threat to the world as you are today about the Iranians.> Ray, you have obviously confused me with somebody else. I was and am still happy that the USA invaded Iraq and defeated Saddam's gang. I wouldn't have wanted to incur the costs, but I don't object if they want to. I didn't think the post-invasion period would be so easy as driving in with tanks and accepting marriage invitations from the women and flowers from all and sundry. I thought the war would be 110 minutes long [one Globalstar orbit], which I admit didn't allow for the long drive from Kuwait to Baghdad and Tikrit and was more in the nature of poetic license. I thought USA tanks would be driving around Baghdad looking for somebody to shoot at - you will recall that I was right on that as the Iraqis sensibly abandoned their uniforms and ran away in their undies. However, I thought that post-invasion door to door guerilla war would be more problematic. I thought the USA would lose more troops than they have done. I also thought they would kill more Iraqis than they have done. It's an almost gentlemanly conflict [compared with what went on in Stalingrad for example]. I thought the USA was off on a wild goose chase and still do. I've been constantly [ad nauseum] advocating a New United Nations approach to such matters, but the USA isn't much interested and neither do other countries seem to be. I think the USA will regret the approach they're taking in the long run. Just as they must be regretting supporting Osama's team against Gorby in the 1980s. Not at all did I think that Saddam threatened the world. I laughed all along at the notion that he had weapons of mass destruction. It was obvious that he didn't and that the real reason for the USA attack was more along the lines that King George II was going to avenge the attack on Laura, Mum and Dad and stop Saddam providing a base and funding for some relatively minor attacks against Israel and others, and keep the price of oil up, and get control of some strategic land with some strategic oil for some strategic buddies in Halliburton et al as well as keeping the USA military tuned up and in practise. But I don't lament Saddam's demise, or Uday's. Good riddance. I did wonder in 1990 whether Saddam had managed to get hold of a nuke and thereby got King George I to back off. The invasion of Kuwait I think was okayed by King George I's crew [April Glaspie being mouthpiece] because that would provide an excuse to whack sanctions on Iraq after giving the USA military some more practise and suppliers more business. Sanctions on Iraqi oil for a decade meant buddies could sell heaps more oil at much higher prices without competition. Profits since then have been enormous for the oil industry [and other energy suppliers]. Saddam at the time realized what the game was. I wondered then why he was worried that sanctions might be maintained if he withdrew - silly me, of course they were. Keeping competitors off the market is a time-honoured way of improving sales. I'll do a separate rant about Iran if you like. So you see, you completely misunderstood my position. Mqurice

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