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

To: tekboy who wrote (132578)	5/11/2004 9:52:48 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I'll be curious to see what the oil-for-food scandal ultimately amounts to; Just reviewing the names on the list of 270 people/groups who received oil allocations from the OFF program provide a clear sign of just how corruptly it was handled.. Hundreds of conflicts of interest involved, to include the head of the OFF program, Mr. Savan.. memri.org memri.org The US has been handed a Foriegn Policy "gift", IMO.. We've apparently caught them red-handed in a conflict of interest at least, and can probably pin embezzlement and political corruption "charges" against them (though jurisdictional authority is still in question for actual legal action). IMO, we need to apply (or at least threaten) some real media heat over the issue and how it impacted the decisions of certain countries in the UNSC who disagreed with overthrowing Saddam. It seemed that most dissenters against the war were overwhelmed with the opinion that the US merely was interested in "stealing" Iraqi oil, but it was really the UN and other world leaders seemingly bent on opposing the US which seemed to be far more interested in Iraq's oil (and lining their pockets). And that opposition directly lead to the requirement for US/UK and other coalition troops to overthrow Iraq while constantly being undermined by those dissenting nations.. Bush certainly could make a campaign issue over it, should he choose, pointing out that Kerry might be supported by some of those who were involved in the scandal (a bit of a stretch, but all's fair in politics, they say).. IMO, if we don't properly maintain the "heat" on this and diligently follow the smoke in order to find the fire, we're really doing ourselves, and the Iraqis, a disservice. In fact, given the current focus on the US prisoner scandal, the only way to deflect world opinion from that would be to replace it with another scandal.. Hawk