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MY LAI VET SAYS: HERE IT
COMES AGAIN IN IRAQ
Tony Swindell
recalls "Butcher's Brigade" in '69; says "gooks"
have now become "ragheads", every adult male is an
"insurgent" ... atrocities against Iraqi civilians
are soon going to explode in America's face; US Government's courtroom jihads against terror
stumble. Alexander Cockburn on Lodi case where Feds paid $250,000
to man who "saw" world's three top terrorists at mosque.
As neocons
and Israel lobby howl for US to bomb Teheran, an Iranian outlines
simple path to peace. CounterPunch
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Nationalizing the oil industry should
be the central tenet of any progressive political movement. Evidence
of the industry's involvement in the invasion of Iraq as well
as its obvious complicity in corrupting the political system
should provide ample proof that the oil giants are a clear and
present danger to democracy and need to be put under state control.
In an era of oil scarcity we
no longer have the luxury of allowing a handful of corporate
plutocrats to decide the fate of the global economy. The industry
chieftains have deliberately closed down refineries to lower
production and enhance their profits. They have sluiced boatloads
of cash into the political system to ensure that congress and
the executive carry out their directives. Presently, there's
not an inch of daylight between the Exxon boardroom and 1600
Pennsylvania Ave, they both operate off the very same script.
The oil industry is the primary
beneficiary of Bush's war in Iraq. Industry executives had a
place at the table when Dick Cheney carved up Iraq's oil fields
for future distribution among America's elite corporations. Freedom
of Information requests have provided "edited documents
from the Cheney Energy Policy group. One of these was a map showing
lease areas where oil drilling was planned (in Iraq). Another
consisted of a list of 40 oil companies from 30 nations who were
slated to get permission to drill for oil in Saddam Hussein's
Iraq. The problem for the US and Britain was that their oil companies
were absent from this list of those who were to get concessions..The
US and UK would thus be frozen out of what was clearly one of
the greatest material prizes in world history." ("The
CFR Debates" Lawerence Shoup; Z Magazine March 2006)
This explains why the industry
backed a bumbling oil-man from Texas who showed neither interest
in policy nor aptitude for leadership. Bush became the draught
horse for executing an agenda that would replace diminishing
Saudi reserves with the second largest supplies in the world,
and then, conveniently remove France and Russia from the list
of competitors.
2,400 American servicemen and
100,000 Iraqis have now sacrificed their lives on the altar of
corporate profiteering. Bush has spread his energy war from Central
Asia to the Middle East; increasing the incidents of terrorism
by 4 fold. The American middle class is being crushed by soaring
gas prices and government malfeasance while well-heeled oil moguls
trundle off to the bank with the largest profits in history.
Isn't it time we rethought
the economic system?
Anyone who has watched the
futures market knows that the present system is doomed. Nowadays,
any disgruntled partisan with a Kalashnikov can take out a pipeline
and send oil prices skyrocketing. Bush has only aggravated this
problem by saber rattling at Iran. His rhetoric has caused an
erosion of confidence in the market and sent prices at the pump
soaring. And, this is only the beginning.
The administration is determined
to take its war wherever oil is obtainable; inciting a global
resistance that could persist throughout the century. This seems
to be the war that Bush and Cheney covet, although their objectives
are cleverly concealed behind the facade of the war on terror.
How can the market survive
this type of volatility; especially when Uncle Sam is creating
thousands of new terrorists with every misguided invasion?
The new State Dept report confirms
that resistance to America's foreign policy is increasing violence
exponentially. Bush's "smash and grab" neoliberalism
is transforming the world into a free-fire zone putting lives
and vital resources at risk.
The system is hopelessly broken
and needs "democratizing" so that energy can be distributed
evenhandedly according to one's basic needs.
If everyone needs access to
energy to maintain a minimal standard of living, then we should
recognize oil as a basic human right like water or food. There
should be regulating-bodies to ensure that distribution is equitable
and not arbitrarily doled out to the highest bidder. There's
no way that the current system can make this adjustment when
the availability of cheap energy is quickly disappearing.
We are facing a future of diminishing
supplies and growing demands. We can either cooperate on a national
and international level; creating the appropriate institutions
for fair distribution, or follow the "Bush model" of
military intervention and unrelenting turmoil.
The belief that the market's
"invisible hand" will guide us safely to the other
shore is nonsense. There is no "free market" in the
oil business; it's a complete myth. Oil extraction in Iraq is
conducted at gunpoint, the ultimate form of coercion. Each barrel
leaving the country has been stolen through military force.
Is this our window into the
future or is cooperation possible?
The world's main source of
energy should not be entrusted to corporate oligarchs whose only
interest is padding the bottom line. The world's resources are
not the sole province of the "highest bidder".
We need an entirely new approach
to energy policy; a vision that anticipates dwindling supplies,
conservation, and the threat of climate change. The path ahead
doesn't have to be littered with the corpses of those who fought
to defend their countries from exploitation. There's another
way.
It is possible for people and
nations to work together for the common good. And, after all,
we only need to look at Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria to see
the dismal alternative.
CounterPunch
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