Saturday, December 10, 2005

FACTS that are missing from the Iraq debate

I don't know what the best way to end the war in Iraq is.

Some of the facts I have in mind have been covered in the press on page A13 or further back, but have only been acknowledged by a handful of Democrats, not the leadership, and NO republicans.

I'm willing to listen to any proposals provided they squarely and upfront acknowledge the FACTs. Conversely, the less I hear about these things, the more I suspect the person talking is lying.

OIL

  • If we just leave, the consequences could be far more severe than in Vietnam because of the OIL.

  • The world's oil supply has either peaked or is about to, and as it declines, the Middle East will be the last region sucked dry. Those who supported the war thought controlling that oil was important for continued US access and our national security as Colin Powell's chief of staff Col. Wilkerson recently said.

    Peak oil & Iraq articles:
    http://www.mymethow.com/~joereid/oil_coup.html

    Wilkerson:
    http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2005/11/powell-ai...

    Neocons have gone further and said that being in control of the oil spigot gives us an effective veto over the growth of other countries including potential rivals like China.

    Oil companies probably wanted Iraq's oil for crasser reasons: stocks are low elsewhere so they need the product, and Iraq's oil will grow exponentially in value as other countries oil reserves dry up. Recent price gouging by oil companies shows how much they care about the rest of us.

    Background on oil company machinations regarding Iraq:

    http://www.gregpalast.com/iraqmeetingstimeline.html

    http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/crudedesi...

  • Restructuring Iraq's oil during a military occupation to favor our oil companies is probably a war crime.

    http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

    The Hague Convention of 1907 (IV) see articles 47, 53, 55
    http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/195?OpenDocument

    The Geneva Convention of 1949 (IV) we've broken almost every section of article 147, and Bush has personally broken article 148.
    http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/380?OpenDocument

    We cannot break such fundamental, long-standing treaties such as these and then complain when other countries violate the treaties we like.

  • Because of pressure from the oil companies, failure of the media to cover the issue adequately, and public inertia, we have failed to prepare for declining oil supplies by switchng to other energy sources, or even add them to the mix in a significant way.

IRAQIS


  • 80% or more of Iraqis want us to leave according to a British intel commissioned poll. That Brit poll found that only 1% of Iraqis feel safer because we are there.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/20...

    This is pretty consistent with the spring 2004 polls by Gallup and the Bush appointed CPA. To Jack Murtha's credit, he actually acknowledged these polls in his floor statement.


    From the Gallup poll in Spring





    • The rest of the Gallup results:

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-gall...


    Bush appointed CPA poll spring 2004




    NOTE: the permanent government this refers to is the one elected in January 2005.

    The rest of the CPA poll:

    http://wid.ap.org/documents/iraq/cpapoll_files/frame.ht...


  • Even Iyad Allawi, the thug who used to be an enforcer for Saddam that Bush appointed prime minister of the provisional government recently said the human rights situation in Iraq is at least as bad now as it was under Saddam.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1651810,00.html

  • At the recent Cairo Conference on Iraq, the Iraqi participants from all factions agreed that while insurgent attacks on civilians were wrong, those on occupation forces are not.
    http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F49E55D0-66B1-43...
    http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/02fb4b61d...

  • We restructured the oil industry in Iraq to make it easier for the oil companies to screw Iraqis out of the income from their oil, and easier for Kurdish and Shi'ite provinces to screw Sunnis out of any oil income.

    Screwing Iraqis out of their oil income is so important to the Bushies they fired Gen. Garner, the first colonial governor of Iraq, when he correctly said delaying elections and privatizing oil would inflame resistance to the occupation.

    Watch interview with Jay Garner:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/39944000/rm/_39944105...

    Story:
    http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=383&row=2

    Do you think that might piss people off enough to grab a gun?

  • Israelis and Saudis separately studied our interrogations of foreign fighters captured in Iraq and found that most had no prior connection to al Qaeda and were motivated by our invasion, not religious fundamentalism.
    http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/20... /


  • The Iraqis are not apes who just descended from the trees, and can't figure out how to put a military and police force together. Bush fired all the qualified people as soon as we invaded. And the current problem is getting troops and cops to fire on their own people who they know may have a legitimate beef with us being there. Which sounds a hell of a lot like Vietnam. Wasn't that the big plan there? Train the Vietnamese to fight for us in our absence? Altough it was never put that bluntly, that's the real problem. When the perception and reality are we are there to screw them out of their natural resources and kill those who protest too much with either airstrikes or death squads, it's going to be tough to find people to consistently fight for us. Those who do are unlikely to be choir boys, and likely inspire even less love for the puppet government.


ARAB & WORLD OPINION





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