Letter to Ed Schultz on Russia & Iraq

Ed,

I heard your comments on Russia passing information to Iraq before the Iraq War and having penetrated our military to get that information.

While I agree we should be alarmed that our military intelligence has been breached, it doesn't necessarily mean that Russia is a threat to us or plans to re-ignite the Cold War.

Russia's military spending is a fraction of ours, and they don't have the equipment, money, or manpower to reach beyond their own backyard.

But Iraq is their backyard.

They would be foolish not to be concerned about us invading Iraq just as it would be foolish for us to ignore the Chinese invading Mexico or Nicaragua or Guatemala. The Russian might also have read the neocons more closely than we have including Zbigniew Brzezinski's Grand Chessboard that says if we control the oil spigot in the Middle East, we can control the growth of our potential competitors.

That might be why a while back Russia, China, and several other Central Asian countries asked us when we were going to leave Iraq and Afghanistan.

A lot of Americans might be stupid enough to believe Bush is over there to fight terrorism, stop the spread of WMDs, or plant democracy, but the Russians can't afford to be that naive.

And if Bush attacks Iran, the only thing stopping a World War will be Russia and China acting with more restraint than Bush.

Ed, you have to stop talking about what we are doing over there in the fairy tale terms that the Bushies have imposed.

Do yourself a favor and read this Pulitzer Prize winning history of oil, THE PRIZE by Daniel Yergin (a guy who now works with Papa Bush at the Carlyle Group ironically) before you say one more word about what we are doing in Iraq.

I called you up once to discuss how oil factored into this war, and I couldn't tell from your response if it had never occurred to you or if you just didn't want to talk about it.

But we cannot stop unnecessary and costly wars until we are honest about why we get into them.