>Partisans of the oil angle, I have a question. The U.S. was attacked,
>and it's not implausible that it was planned by ObL, who is based in
>Afghanistan, and that his operatives were trained there. So it's not
>outlandish that any response be directed there, whatever it may be.
>So how's the oil angle fit into that? Did the CIA concoct the attack
>to justify a war on Afghanistan? Is it just a happy coincidence? Or
>are people just in the habit of invoking oil as the Real Secret
>Reason for everything that happens?
>
>Doug
Trolling for conspirologists, Doug? !{)>
Let the bum-talking begin !! (Man, I LOVE that term! Blessed be the one who invented it!)
I would tend to say, perched here on my omniscient throne <flush!>, that the most likely constellation of events culminating in 9/11 is this: there are oil companies who have wanted to get their way in this area, but they have been blocked by the present instability of the region, and its former ideological affiliations. So they put their wishes on the back burner while they fry other fish. Meanwhile, the U.S. government uses the ready-made tools in the region to undermine the Communists, primarily (I suspect from that memo someone posted here a few weeks ago) out of ideological convictions of their own. Maybe a few Fed people spotted the oil angle, maybe more than a few; who knows. Meanwhile, The Taliban are helped into power; the hope is that they'll stabilize the region, and, boy, do they ever stabilize whatever piece of ground they occupy. As for other pieces of ground, well . . . . Meanwhile, ObL and Co. start their career as radical fundie schmucks, feeding, at least in part, on Mid-East sentiments and contributing their own stuff to the mixture. Now, here's where things get fuzzy: someone gets pissed off with the U.S. enough to hit the WTC and Pentagon (It's my belief that this is more a result of U.S. actions in the Mid-East; maybe ObL "helped" somehow, how much I've no idea). For several months before this, on and off, ObL's name is bruited about by the media for various terrorist acts vs. the U.S. (Was his name mentioned in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing? I forget.). The media just seemed to have latched onto this guy's name; I don't recall ever hearing any terrorist's name noised about so much, except for Yassir Arafat's. This is most likely due to media's endless attempts at simplification for easy reading. So, after the bombing, people start looking around for perps. ObL's name is already on people's minds, so the admin (who are already tight with Big Oil) figures to take this golden opportunity to give Big Oil what it wants, make an example of a regime that's gotten out of their control, make themselves look good for the next election, deal some "justice" so their constituents won't can them, help erase the division caused by the election, deal a "blow to terrorism" (after all, Something's Got To Be Done, right?), and help try to prop up a sagging economy with a Keynesian "jump-start". In short, Doug: it's all a fractal co-incidence (assuming no other, juicier, data) which the U.S. government is taking advantage of.
Try and swallow THAT!
Todd