Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (310)	1/7/2003 12:23:32 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

Hypertexting the Gulf War by G. Simon Harak nonviolence.org Excerpt: 7. During the Iran-Iraq war, the al-Sabah family [rulers of Kuwait] gave some $17 billion to Iraq. It saw the Iranian Shi'i revolution as a threat to itself, and so financed a long-standing Arab-Persian (Iranian) conflict. But it also had established farms and settlements over the Iraqi border. Most important, the al-Sabah family was also drilling in the Rumailah oil field. The Rumailah oil field is 95 percent in Iraq, but the al-Sabah family brought in the most sophisticated American oil-drilling technology to "slant drill" in its 5 percent of Rumailah while the Iraqis were unable to drill during the war (some of my Arabist friends were fairly sure there was an agreement about this: oil for financial backing). It sold that oil, at below OPEC prices, to Japan and the US (Kuwait has always played this role: increasing its sale of oil to the importers in times of crisis). The al-Sabah family by now was unimaginably rich, with an estimated wealth of some 90 billion dollars. They had invested about 50 billion dollars in the stocks of US companies. 8. After the Iran-Iraq war, Hussein was increasingly isolated, politically and economically. He was some 60 billion dollars in debt from the war, and the West had cut off his credits after he had a British reporter executed as a spy. The West was also concerned that its overall strategy would be upset (see par. #5 above), since Iraq now had an army second in power only to Israel in the Middle East. 9. Meanwhile, the al-Sabah family continued to slant-drill, and to sell to the West at below OPEC prices, despite Hussein's actions in the Arab League and protests to OPEC. It continued to deny him access to the Gulf. By now, Hussein was requesting the use of the unpopulated Bubiyan and Warba islands, to avoid having to use Basra on the Shatt-al-Arab, since he shared that waterway to the Gulf with Iran. Finally, the al-Sabah family declared that the $17 billion it had given Hussein was not a gift (or an exchange for the Rumailah oil, see par. #7), but a loan which must be repaid. (4) 10. Hussein therefore began to think about using his armed forces to insist upon resolution of the border and monetary disputes. He threatened to do so about a year before the August 2nd invasion at OPEC and Arab League meetings; hence the now famous meetings with Robert Dole and other US senators (5) in April, 1990 and April Glaspie in July, 1990. He massed troops along the border. The Arabs were concerned, and arranged for a conference at Jidda on July 31st, 1990. (6) According to Jordan's King Hussein, there was a pre-conference, back door meeting at which the Al-Saud and al-Sabah families agreed to Hussein's terms (in addition to forgiving the debt, they were each to give $10 billion toward the Iraqi war debt). That agreement was then to be "arrived at" in Jidda. But on July 30th, Sheikh Sabeh Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, the brother of the Emir, and foreign minister, was speaking to Jordanian diplomats. He ridiculed the Iraqi forces, and when the Jordanians rebuked him, he said, "If they don't like it, let them occupy our territory ... we are going to bring in the Americans." Again, this was three days before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. At Jidda the next day, he announced to Izzat Ibrahim his intention to offer Saddam Hussein $500 million (not the $10 billion agreed upon). The meeting broke up after two hours; two days later, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (310)	1/7/2003 2:44:33 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

That's his opinion. Lucky for us, GWB makes the ultimate decision.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (310)	1/7/2003 11:51:21 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

>>> Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the chances of a war in Iraq had changed from 60-40 to 40-60.<<< Hey, a 20 percent gain in the market is considered good--lol! OK, let's say America can't rally allies to go to war in Iraq, mostly because the weapons inspection program's first report reports it can't find any weapons of mass destruction. I suppose the next logical step would be for the inspections to continue and it wouldn't surprise me if this process last a whole year, with the US military edging Iraq like a bloodhound with prey in the hole. So then comes the yearend weapons inspection report and still nothing is found. What happens? 1) Does the bloodhound, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, go home or move to another troubled spot in the world? Or does it remain based, hoping for a break? 2) Does the UN, because no weapons were found, then lift the sanctions off of Iraq and Iraq then becomes free to be the oil producer it always wanted to be but hasn't become due to the eight-year war with Iran and the sactions imposed from the Gulf War? 3) How would Bush look if Saddam goes back to being a capiltalist oil king doling out contracts to everybody but America? The presidential campaign would be in full swing by this time, would it not? Just food for thought. I look forward to responses as to what might happen if after a year of inspections nothing is found.