Americans do not seem to understand the principle perfected many centuries ago by the Romans. To solidify your power, create so-called "enemies", and then build up your armies to protect you from "them".
The House of Bush summarised in a single sentance (stolen from a leftie site):
Just because the Supreme Court set a poison precedent and appointed Bush, who brought in his crowd of neocon yahoos that no one discussed during the 2000 campaign because we 'Muricans vote for the man and not the mob of frothing dogs that come in his wake, just because the twin bill of unreasonably massive tax cuts were combined with economic depth-charge that was the Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal that was umbilically connected to the White House, just because the economy (not to mention our whole psyche) absorbed another blow when four commercial airplanes somehow managed to pierce the most impenetrable air defense system in the history of the universe, fooling the entire intelligence community as well if you believe what you hear on Fox despite a blizzard of warnings and a raft of information from the previous administration, just because a bunch of anthrax got mailed to Democrats by the Ashcroft wing of the Republican Party in what were obvious assassination attempts and yet nothing but nothing has been done about it, just because the 9/11 attack was immediately and I mean the day after immediately grasped as an excuse to invade Iraq, just because virtually everyone in the administration lied with their bare faces hanging out about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, terrorism ties in Iraq, so break out the plastic sheeting and duct tape because we're all gonna die, just because they did this in no small part to win the 2002 midterms by any means necessary, just because 1,502 American soldiers have been killed looking for the 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons (which is 1,000,00 lbs.) of sarin and mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000 munitions to deliver the stuff, mobile biological weapons labs, arial drones to spray the aforementioned stuff, and let's not forget the uranium from Niger for use in Iraq's robust nukular program, all of which was described to the letter by Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address, all of which remains on the White House website on a page titled 'Disarm Saddam Hussein,' just because the medical journal Lancet estimates that as many as 198,000 Iraqi citizens have been killed as well in the war to get at this stuff, just because none of the stuff was there, and by the way nonee of the stuff was there, and did I mention that none of the stuff was there, just because the idea that Hussein was allied with bin Laden was laughable because Osama has wanted Saddam's head on his battle standard for decades, just because the true source of world terrorism, which is Wahabbist extremism in Saudi Arabia, goes completely unaddressed because the Houses of Bush and Saud have been partnered for decades, just because so much of 9/11 and this 'War on Terra' has to do with business arrangements going awry between these two Houses, just because a deep-cover CIA agent who was working to track any person or nation or group that would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists got her cover and her network blown by Administration officials who wanted to shut her husband and any other potential whistleblowers the hell up, just because the front company she was working out of called Brewster Jennings and Associates was likewise blown, thus torpedoing other agents and their networks, just because absolutely all of this went virtually unreported by the mainstream media until it was too late, if it was reported at all, just because dangerous spies like Ahmad Chalabi used Judy Miller and the New York Times to disseminate the lie that Iraq was riddled with weapons, thus opening the floodgates for the rest of the media to repeat the lie because once the Times says it, it must be true, just because this lack of reporting combined with an astounding level of cheerleading from the aforementioned media combined with some good old-fashioned vote fraud in places like Ohio, Florida and New Mexico gave the aforementioned group of yahoos four more years and a congressional majority in both houses of congress, just because this means the Iraq war will continue and Iran will probably be next and draconian legislation further restricting our rights will get passed along with things like the Bankruptcy bill and media reform of any kind will be nowhere on the menu, just because a lot of the Justices on the Supreme Court are sure to step down or die soon and Bush will be able to recraft that high court for the next 20 years, just because the Christian Reconstructionists are becoming mainstream with their goal of having every American singing "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me" in a droning monochromatic hypnotized voice all day every day...
...doesn't mean anyone should be worried or anything. Get a grip.
</snip>
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My personal take on Iraq is that it has been deliberately used as a focus for the American people to keep Bush in power and help his financial concerns (and the concerns of his friends).
A side effect is the polarisation of Religion, especially the ignorance now shown towards Muslims by Christians. (Note it's nearly always US Christians who tell you that the evil Muslims must be stopped - often 'forgetting' to clarify they mean violent fundamentalists). Another side effect is the general levels of fear Bush and friends have managed to instill in to the American populace, and to a lesser extent the same applies here with Blair and his pathetic 'anti-terror' laws.
An interesting consequence of this war has been the openess with which the media has worked with the US Government. It is sickening to see the misrepresentation of facts as provided by ABC, CNN, FOX et al. They not only present the governmental viewpoint, but present it as unquestionable fact. They talk about Al Jezerra as though it were run by fundalmentalists because they
show the effects of war (i.e. show dead bodies). Only in the west are we so removed from our actions that we can invade a country with such a sense of rightousness and be sickened by the death it causes.
But lets get the "facts" straight about the middle east that most americans will deny, because they can't face any truth too close to shattering their illusions of insecurity:
* Osama was trained by the CIA and given substancial financial support
* Osama's extended family were conveniently allowed out when the airspace had apparently been shut down over the whole USA
* Saddam was an assassin supported by the CIA before he became president - Saddams first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.
* Saddam failed in his attempt, but was laid by in Beruit until they decided to install him as dictator (via co-ordination with Egyptian secret service)
* Saddam was equipped by the west in his war on Iran (actually mostly US - don't pretend it was mostly French and UK).
* The US provided military assistance in the war against Iran (blinding Iran's radar for 3 days)
* Saddam was given the green light to invade Kuwait by the US (historically it used to be part of Iraq, they felt it was theirs), so...
* Saddam was set up for Gulf War 1, and hence also GW2
* Oil also has it's part to play. No matter what you think the motivations were, you can't deny that maintaining control over oil is essential to US hegemony:
Oil is not just another commodity. Major industries, armies, transportation and society overall cannot run without it. Most of the worlds oil (and the cheapest to produce) is in the Middle East. The power that controls that oil has a major advantage over rival bosses. Oil is also a major source of profits and economic power.
Currently anyone buying crude oil must pay OPEC or any oil producer in dollars. Therefore, such buyers must accumulate dollars to pay for their oil. To do that they must exchange their own currency for dollars or demand dollars for what they themselves produce. Thus, the dollar dominates world trade; it is the worlds reserve currency.
Several decades ago, the U.S. became a debtor country. It is now the worlds biggest debtor nation, owing $2.7 trillion. It then prints more dollars which are bought by currency traders to build dollar reserves. The U.S. uses these funds to pay off the $2 billion a day required to satisfy the debt. In a sense, U.S. bosses are getting a "free ride" through its exclusive control over printing dollars. Since this is the currency in which oil is traded petrodollars the U.S. has an edge over its rivals both in economic terms as well as having a stranglehold over the distribution of oil.
The world economic crisis exposed by the dot.com collapse made others bosses wary of playing second fiddle to the U.S. forever. The law of inter-imperialist rivalry (each group of bosses must fight for maximum profits at the expense of rival bosses) impelled the European Union to create the Euro to challenge the dollar. The value of the euro has surpassed the value of the dollar by 17%. Three years ago Iraq began demanding Euros instead of dollars for its oil exports. Iran is contemplating a similar move. As countries are forced to accumulate euros instead of dollars, the value of the euro will rise and the dollar will fall even further. This could conceivably induce the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc. to ask for euros for their oil. Oil-buying countries would have to stock euros in their central banks to buy their oil. The more euros are used to purchase oil the worlds most important and expensive commodity the less would oil be traded in dollars. The value of the dollar would drop even further. U.S. corporations and consumers would have to shell out more dollars to purchase goods. This could severely affect the U.S. economy.
All this is one reason why U.S. bosses have seized Iraq and its oil fields, second largest reserves worldwide. Not only would its military muscle control Iraq and force its oil (controlled by ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, etc.) to be paid for with dollars instead of euros, but it would solidify U.S. control in the Mid-East region, the worlds largest source of oil. It would also help U.S rulers maintain the dollar as the worlds reserve currency.
And slightly OT but somewhat related (i.e. in the general War On Terror). For another take on Al Quaida check out this BBC documentary that challenges that there is any Al Quaida network at all:
The Power of Nightmares
It's worth noting before you dismiss this last link out of hand as the work of a lone nut-job, that the producer is highly respected for writing documentaries, and it won a BAFTA (brittish TV award), and is being re-edited in to a film format for Cannes.
To anyone who has not seen the series, you can d/l it with bittorrent, etc - it's VERY popular and there are lots of seeds for it (am sure it is everywhere in every format by now!).
If you ever read the comments at the BBC you will know what they are like - I suggest you check the
2 pages of comments about this program, because nearly every single one is from a person who talks of a "veil of ignorance being lifted" (pun kinda intended).
