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

To: stockman_scott who wrote (100047)	6/3/2003 6:09:02 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

Stockman, in defence of the King George II and the war against Saddam, it's a bit like the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Hillary mentioned. There isn't of course a vast right wing conspiracy. It's just that people with common interests and ideas act in ways to benefit themselves, which, synergistically, looks like a conspiracy to the outside world. Similarly, Al Qaeda isn't a vast Islamic Jihad conspiracy, though, like the Rabid Republican Right [RRR], it looks like it and the proponents try to create one. As usual in such gangsterism, the infighting soon takes greater importance than fighting the external world, which is more remote and less directly a problem. To make a short story long, in the 1980s, Shell, the oil company, introduced Formula Shell, just when I'd arrived in London to look after BP's petrol business as Product Development Advisor [a marketing/technical job for BP International]. I hadn't even found the dunnies or managed to get a memo typed by Aggie [the big Nigerian woman who put my stuff at the bottom of the heap while she typed the boss's stuff - it took a week to get a handwritten thing into final form to put in the out tray - I am just reminiscing about how far we've come in 15 years, with cyberspace whizzing everything everywhere in seconds]. Anyway, before the last of the readers drift away, we took one look at Formula Shell and realized Shell had blundered in a big way. To avoid technical jargon, what Shell had done was take a fairly good idea - the spark aider, then pump it up, twist the overall context around, exaggerate the prospects and generally give the Emperor a brand new cloak of gold and silver threads, stitched together by the clever tailors. Nobody in the crowd dared point out that the cloak was all noise and bluster and the King was actually naked! We in BP took a look when the details were clear, and realized they'd blundered before they had a clue [though perhaps somebody in Shell knew, but kept their mouths shut for fear of being declared unpatriotic and giving comfort to the enemy.] King George II has certainly made it clear to everyone that if they aren't with him they are against him and Helen Clark, our Kiwi Prime Minister has been given a quick lick of the whip for an unguarded comment or two. No wonder the Yeti and BigFoot were definitely in Saddam's clutches. Nobody dared point out to King George II that he was as naked as the day he was born. Being the King, he didn't really care anyway, because really, he was out to get Saddam and the oil and didn't care what reason was put about. So a BigFoot hunt was on! The crowd gathered, just as with Formula Shell. The soldiers arrayed. USS Enterprise steamed into action. Nobody dared point out that the whole thing was based on false premises. The outcome has been disappointing for Shell, and the great victory in Iraq is looking jaded already. If Wolfowitz is right that getting out of Saudi Arabia was a HUGE reason for the war, then Osama is heading for a 2-0 victory. The evil infidels will be out of the hallowed ground of Saudi Arabia and Saddam is gone from power in Iraq, thanks to the Lone Ranger and Tonto [not to forget the Wizard of Oz], leaving the way clear for Osama to have a celebratory home-coming at the head of Islamic Jihad, joining the Holy Arab Lands of Iraq, Saudi Arabia [and Kuwait presumably]. The war against Saddam might end up a bit like Formula Shell = a great idea, but messed up in the details and the aftermath not what was planned when it was all gung ho. The hunt for WMDs seemed really good at the time but it wasn't as real as it seemed. Mqurice