Monday, August 16, 2004

Response to article - This is a response to a previous article. "Puppet government in Araq" . I will republish occasional comments with the permission of the author http://radio.weblogs.com/0137954/2004/08/13.html You have precisely summarize at once both the Iraqi situation and the definition of quagmire. The U.S. has been led into a no win situation. Leave, and blood of civil war and regional instability is forever attributed to the arroagant and powerful Americans. Stay, and American GI's continue to die and be maimed and crippled and we throw even more 100's of billions of taxpayer's hard earned dollars after bad. The only possible solution is a new President and a prayer that that new President can convince regional nations around Iraq that 1) we are going to be reducing our presence, and 2) it is in their own self-interest to fill the gradual void we leave in order to insure stability and avoid civil war and fundamentalist jihad from spilling over into their own nations. In return, the new President accedes progressively to regional nations assuming the rebuilding contracts now held by American corporations giving regional nations a vested monetary interest and reward for filling in the void left by our gradual troop withdrawals. It may not work. But, it is the only strategy now available to the U.S. for exiting this qaugmire with some measure of success attached to the historical record. David Remer • 8/16/04; 4:04:16 AM #   11:32:41 PM    comment []

Is it always about oil? My response in another forum: The subject "It's always about the oil". Look it up if you want. I wrote my response to be valid by itself. http://www.volconvo.com/forums/index.php?s=db403eed048a7c2dd7a74d22981e079e&;showtopic=2754 Oil, among other things, like grain and water is an item necessary to the survival of Westen industrial civilization. Unlike food and water (and I suppose a host of other things I haven't thought about) oil would seem to be something we could do without. The icon of the SUV-driving all-consuming American comes to mind. Certainly there are excesses. Americans drive their SUV's (and their hybrids) through towns that are going bankrupt trying to pay their heating bills. This is true with the distribution of food, water and medicine as well. Some have more than they need and some have not enough. This is true in capitalist countries as well as socialist democracies and the old hard core communist countries. What is different about oil. Nothing. We just haven't had wars for food in recent memory. It might happen between the Koreas. One of the slogans in one of the prior posts was "He who controls oil rules". This would be true if anyone could control oil. As it stands oil production, refinement and distribution are as usual in a chaotic state. It has always been this way. We had a minor oil shock in 1973. The rest of the decade saw world-wide stagnancy as well as inflation. There were other factors, but a 10 or so day cut in production and a 30% price increase(not sure of the increase amount) was a significant factor. Can anyone imagine what would happen if Saudi Arabia had to cease production?(evidedently a goal of Al Qaeda) Forget SUVs. National economies would collapse all over the world. Certainly, the economies of U.S. Japan and all the emerging eastern economies, China and Europe would all be shattered. Can you imagine millions of unemployed marching on Washington and the President calling upon the next General MacArthur to quell the uprising? But you know for sure, enough oil would still exist for many of these countries to lubricate their militaries. Would it go so far as nuclear war? So yes, it is always about oil. But this attitude that somehow if Americans were not so greedy everything would be better and we would not have to fight wars for oil is demagoguery.   7:24:18 PM    comment []