Question: WHO ASKED FOR THE 21,000 SOLDIERS?
We know the US military didn't ask for the 21,000 troops. (Outgoing commander General George Casey called for a troop reduction.)
We know the Iraqi government didn't ask for the 21,000 troops. (Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is reportedly unhappy about a visible increase in foreign occupiers).
So who wants the occupation to continue? The answer is in Riyadh. When the King of Saudi Arabia hauled Dick Cheney before his throne on Thanksgiving weekend, the corrupt oil Monarch laid down the law to Veep: the US will not withdraw from Iraq.
(The Saudis have PUBLICLY threatened in recent weeks to drastically LOWER the price of oil if the US pulls out of Iraq --- the better to impoverish the Iranians and take away their capacity to wage expensive wars they explained --- and also signaled that they would increase their financial and military support for the Sunni Arabs fighting in Iraq against the Shiites.)
I say: LET THEM!
In just the past few days --- perhaps as a *signal* that it's not just talk, they are serious about this --- the Saudis have *lowered* the price of Arabian Light, their finest blend, by $1.75 /barrel to a $7.50/barrel discount to West Texas Sweet, for its US customers, the deepest discount in 10-months.
Saudi Arabia also cut the price of Arab Light to Asian buyers by a more modest 10 cents (About half of the Saudi kingdom’s 7 million BPD of crude exports move to Asia) and to European buyers by 20 cents from January.
Source:
What's Really Behind This Oil Price Crash?
Gary Dorsch (Global Money Trends)
energy.seekingalpha.com
According to Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi who signals to the US government the commands and diktats of the House of Saud, the Saudis are concerned that a US pull-out will leave their Sunni brothers in Iraq to be slaughtered by Shia militias. More important, the Saudis will not tolerate a Shia-majority government in Iraq controlled by the Shia mullahs of Iran. A Shia combine would threaten Saudi Arabia's hegemony in the OPEC oil cartel.
In other words, it's about the oil.
>>> I say: Let's STOP playing SUCKER for the SUNNIS.
If the Sunni world engages to fight the (smaller) Shiite forces of Iraq and Iran, it will be ENTIRELY to our BENEFIT.
Years of lower energy prices (as both sides pump full-out to finance their fight).
Years of Western relative safety as Sunni and Shia extremists are pitted against each other in a death struggle....
And possibly, just possibly, the collapse of extremism on BOTH sides... and a long-delayed Islamic Reformation and a turn to moderation and support for religious freedom... as *extremism* (whether Sunni or Shia!) loses support on the streets.
Time to quit playing sucker and propping up corruption, extremism, and Autocrats, and time to PLAY OUR WINNING HAND.
It is *not in our national interest* to stay interminably hunkered-down in the middle of a civil/religious war, being *used as an excuse* by BOTH sides to blame all of their failings on!
Time to stand up for AMERICAN INTERESTS. |
