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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win Smith who wrote (35836)	8/3/2002 12:42:05 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

It's not mostly about oil, Win, though oil will always be a motive wherever there is oil. It is about an America that was perceived as so wobbly and weak-willed that Al Qaeda thought they could strengthen their position via September 11th, as they had with the embassy and Cole bombings before. It is about all the parties in the Middle East who read, and are still reading, the lessons of Al Qaeda's attacks and of our responses. It is about the folly of proportional responses to enemy that reads them only as weakness, and who, because of our power, can trumpet his mere survival as a great victory. It is about regaining respect for American power. That's what it is about. The rest is commentary.

To: Win Smith who wrote (35836)	8/3/2002 2:21:03 PM
From: quehubo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The end game is of course power. Control of WMD as a means to gain control of a sizeable portion of ME oil provides a clear path to the end game. The Saudi's are being bad mouthed because they are fomenting and exporting the ideology that ultimately places our oil interests at risk in the ME. The 'stans and Russia can be a nuisance, but I suspect over the next 25 years they will be nothing more than that. The Arab's are sitting on the big prize and the other oil providing nations are just stepping stones on the way to that prize. The Israeli's, the Palestinians and other Arabs can go on destroying each other, it only really gets our attention when it may effect oil supply and or blood shed spills over onto our soil. By putting a lid back on it, do you think the lid has ever been back on since the West led the formation of many of the nations in question?