4 Comments so far

1. ezeflyer February 15th, 2007 2:02 pm

   Oil has literallly made foreign and security policy for decades. Just since the turn of this century, it has provoked the division of the Middle East after World War I; aroused Germany and Japan to extend their tentacles beyond their borders; the Arab oil embargo; Iran versus Iraq; the Gulf War, this is all clear.
   Bill Richardson, U.S. Secretary of Energy, 1999

   A quick look at the map is all it takes. It’s no coincidence that the map of terror in the Middle East and Central Asia is practically interchangeable with the map of oil. There’s Infinite Justice, Enduring Freedom–and Everlasting Profits to be made.
   Asia Times, 2002

   The need to dominate oil from Iraq is also deeply intertwined with the defense of the dollar. Its current strength is supported by OPEC’s requirement (secured by a secret agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia) that all OPEC sales be denominated in dollars.
   Peter Dale Scott, 2003

   He (Karl Rove) turned out millions of the foot soldiers on November 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics… It’s why the invasion of Iraq was for them a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation… A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed–an essential conflagration on the road to redemption.
   Bill Moyers, 2004

2. cjc February 16th, 2007 1:04 am

   President Bush and company abandoned Afghanistan to prepare for the invasion of Iraq.
   Talk about self-defeating decisions!
   Not only is it a disaster for the long-suffering people of Afghanistan, it is a defeat in the “war against terror(ism)” that the President talks about. Then today 2/15/07 Bush wakes up and says he will send more troops. But while some military presence is surely necessary in a country that has been seriously at war for nearly 30 years, more necessary is real reconstruction - roads, schools, hospitals, etc etc. The whole works. I read a story this week about an American doctor who was working at a hospital in Kabul that was briefly named after Laura Bush, but he couldn’t get the US to send any supplies whatsoever. He finally gave up. I think there is going to be a TV broadcast and that is where I read about the hospital. It’s enough to make you weep with frustration and rage.
   You don’t have to be an “expert” to have reason to fear the total collapse of Afghanistan.

3. Shane February 16th, 2007 10:38 am

   The Afghanis are tough, resourceful and proud people, and can take care of themselves. Many empires have cast their gaze at Afghanistan, and each time, have had their butts kicked and have been run out of the country. The same will be true for the US and NATO. History has demonstrated over and over again that the Afghanis will not be tamed.

4. GBubbles February 16th, 2007 6:24 pm

   I read somewhere that Bush & Co. want an agreement with Iraq to sell oil to American companies, then they want to put through a pipeline across Afghanistan. If that is true, we can only trust them to do enough to accomplish that. I don’t believe they care about anything but their own agenda.

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