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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (7224)	9/23/2002 11:35:16 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Victory of the Loud Little Handful The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. Published on Friday, September 20, 2002 in the Philadelphia Inquirer Victory of the Loud Little Handful by Mark Twain The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously - object... at first. The great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it." Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded, but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the antiwar audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long, you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men... Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception. Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger" (1910)

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (7224)	9/23/2002 11:55:47 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

Japan counts down to half-year book closing sg.biz.yahoo.com

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (7224)	9/24/2002 2:56:36 AM
From: surfbaron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

JW: <<but within the Arab and Islam world, Saudis will scream bloody murder and undermine the US in subtle ways this will become so dicey and nasty, confusing and connivingly dangerous >> no worse than currently

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (7224)	9/24/2002 3:36:48 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

A Nightmare on Wall Street gold-eagle.com

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (7224)	9/24/2002 5:13:53 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

>> I expect Arabs will rise into a worldwide Islamic Revolution if we invade Iraq << I think you're dead wrong. But, assuming for a moment you're not, the Arabs have repeatedly proven themselves to be the most mediocre offensive soldiers of the past 50 years. If they rise, they will face military and political disaster. The threat of the Arab street is vastly overrated. They pose a greater danger to themselves than to anyone else.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (7224)	9/24/2002 9:33:16 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Courtship of Mideast Oil Raises U.S. Guard OSAKA, Japan -- Explosive growth in China's energy needs in coming years will pit it in deepening strategic competition for the world's resources with current consuming giant, the United States, analysts said, reported by AFP. Already the world's second biggest energy user, declining production at home will force China to import some 10 million barrels per day of oil by 2030 -- more than 8 percent of all world oil demand, according to the International Energy Agency. And as it seeks to cope with a looming deficit in oil, China has piqued Washington's interest by nurturing ties with big Middle East producers Iraq, Iran and Libya -- all nations in which Washington bans investment by its own companies. "China is going to be dramatically short in energy resources," said David Pietz, an expert in Chinese Energy at Washington State University. "Given the relative abundance in the Middle East it really is unavoidable that China will be forced to source ever greater amounts of its oil from there. That's obviously true of the United States as well." State-owned China National Petroleum Company's move into a multibillion-dollar project to pipe oil from Sudan has underlined Beijing's determination to move in where ethical concerns make U.S. companies reluctant to tread. "Sudan has a great deal of potential for exploration and while U.S. firms are handcuffed by human rights considerations, there's no real similar restraint on Chinese companies," said Rick Mueller of Energy Security Analysis in Boston. China will also have to bring in some 30 percent of its gas imports from abroad by 2030 -- initially from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, but increasingly from Russia and the former Soviet Union such as Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Those are the very regions that the U.S. has been courting in its effort to buck a growing reliance on Middle East oil. "These trends will make China a strategic buyer on world energy markets," the IEA said in its world energy outlook released at the International Energy forum of 60 producing and consuming nations in Osaka. The United States recognised the looming rivalry for the world's energy resources in a report to congress earlier this year. "Chinese leaders believe that the United States seeks to contain China and is therefore a major threat to its energy security," said the report by the U.S.-China security review commission. China uses arms sales and its international diplomatic weight to make inroads to the Middle East, the report said. "China suspects that the United States seeks to dominate the (Persian Gulf) region in order to exercise control over the Persian Gulf's energy resources," it added. It is a switch away from coal -- which currently takes up more than 70 percent of China's fuel needs -- combined with a relentless increase in demand for transport fuels that is driving China's energy revolution. Energy demand is expected to grow nearly three percent a year on average to 2030, by which time China will eat up 20 percent of all world energy supply -- just less than the share the United States guzzles now, the IEA said. China's role as a magnet for energy investment is just starting to take off too. The IEA estimating it will need a staggering $800 billion's worth of new power generating capacity as China's huge population switches on to electricity. The resource rivalry is so far in its infancy, with China at the moment content to see the United States shoulder the burden of protecting world energy flows, analysts said. "For now there's a relative meeting of minds. China is dependent on oil coming through the Persian Gulf, and it's the United States that is going to guarantee them," said Pietz. "The same goes for the South China Sea area, where such a great amount of China's imported oil goes through." tehrantimes.com