if you've been listening to the Democrats the last couple of weeks, it's clear they are only just beginning to flex their muscles ... i've seen a number of them on the big talk shows finally standing up to bush on Iraq ... their opposition comes in all flavors but all are very free to criticize bush for the colossal mistake he made when he invaded Iraq ... i wish that translated into a more aggressive call for withdrawal of troops, but that's a topic for other posts ...
interestingly, one of the themes I've heard Democrats repeat several times or more is that invading Iraq took our focus off the "war on terror", especially in Afghanistan ... the case is being made by Democrats that the situation in Afghanistan has worsened considerably since bush "refocussed" our military into Iraq ... i think the point almost goes without saying ... the situation in Afghanistan gets worse by the day ... implicit in the Dems argument is that Iraq has not only not made us safer but it made us less safe because we failed to finish the job in Afghanistan ...
we don't seem to spend much time in this country asking about "motives" ... we seem more interested in arguing about tactics to help us catch the bad guys ... in my view, this sort of thinking is overly simplistic ... if all you do is catch some bad guys, there will always be more bad guys ... it's like that potato chip commercial: "munch all you want; we'll make more" ... has it occurred to anyone in the US power establishment to ask the very simple question: why do they want to attack us? i'll lay aside any thoughts i might have about LIHOP or MIHOP for the purpose of this analysis ... so, why would a bunch of guys from the Middle East want to attack citizens in the US? bush said it was because "they hate us for our freedoms" ... yeah, right ... you mean like they're mad because no one lets them have "casual Fridays"? or they're mad because we can write a letter to the editor complaining about what a jackass bush is? "i will kill the Americans because they are allowed to write letters" ... does this argument make sense to anyone?
the truth is they may hate us for a variety of reasons ... sure, they hate our strong support for Israel ... i won't debate that issue here ... but they also hate us for propping up tyrants in the Middle East ... they hate us for building bases and occupying their countries with our military (i'm told we have "strategic interests" in the region - i assume they mean oil) ... so, on top of all that, with all the post-911 talk in the US, what brilliant strategy has the US undertaken now? and what is the reaction of the Arab street to this brilliant strategy? i'm glad you asked ... please read this ...
the following article appeared in the United Arab Emirates press ... it was written by a Yemeni author ... does it sound like imposing the new "Oil Law" on Iraq will make America safer? while the Democrats are talking about Afghanistan, maybe they should be paying a little more attention to the new "Oil Law" in Iraq ... it is a prescription for a generation of deeper hatred between Arabs and the US ...
source:
http://www.watchingamerica.com/gulfnews000001.shtml
Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
The Oil Truth and Nothing but the Oil Truth
“Under Saddam, it was impossible for any foreign company to get such a deal. This is enslavement of our country by those who say they came to liberate us.”
By Munir Daair
The coin finally dropped. Stealthily, but we heard it loud and clear.
It dropped while we were busy scratching our heads trying to figure out what plan America's current great leader, the eminent George W. Bush, has for Iraq; what truths were buried with Iraq's former great leader, the late eminent Saddam Hussain; and how bloody Iraq's civil war will become. This, after busily listening to tales of WMD's (was that Words of Mass Deception?) and the lies "we are not there for Iraq's oil", after watching the sham of Iraq's election process and the billions gone missing under the watchful eyes of the occupying powers.
THE OIL TRUTH IS NOW UNFOLDING
Everything else was just a charade for America, as it quietly drafted Iraq's new oil law that will further enrich Bush and Cheney’s oil buddies for the next 30 years. In fact, a representative of the American company, BearingPoint, has been working in the US embassy in Baghdad to "assist" with the law, which is to be approved by Iraq's parliament. This law - drafted in Washington and approved by U.S. oil companies before Iraqis themselves even heard of it - gives unprecedented partnership "rights" to American and Western oil giants. <skip>
"Under Saddam, it was impossible for any foreign company to get such a deal. This is enslavement of our country by those who say they came to liberate us. Do they think we will allow them to extract our oil and sell it on such terms? This is theft from a nation under siege, exploiting our weakness at the point of a gun. They are kicking us while we're down. I opposed Saddam, that's why I have live exiled in France all these years. But now I am not sure. Maybe Saddam was better." <skip>
CONCESSIONS
Under the new American-drafted law, the Iraqi government will offer contractual concessions up to 30 years’ long to foreign companies, using a system known as a PSA (Production Sharing Agreement). In other words, American and other Western oil companies are being allowed to exploit Iraq's current predicament and negotiate self-serving, one-sided oil PSA's that will legally commit the entire country of Iraq for the next 30 years.
So it’s no surprise that Bush will order an additional 20,000 American soldiers to risk their lives in Iraq. They will be needed to fight "terrorism" which is sure to rise as Iraqis resist the raping of their country. The world will be treated to a continuing spectacle of bloodletting. Young Iraqis dying to stop - and young Anglo/Americans dying to ensure - the transfer of Iraqi wealth to Bush and Cheney's already rich friends. <skip>
FUTURE REACTION
Oh, yes sir, we here know Iraq well - its history, its present - and we can predict its future reaction too, especially with foreign occupation.
We also know how naïve the occupying powers are. And that is also why we fear the ramifications of this latest oil law, this latest naivety, which will only provoke further bloodshed. Yet more young Iraqi and Anglo/American blood will be wasted to expand the Bush/Cheney-related bank accounts.
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