--- Luke Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
> Justin wrote:
>
>
> > But they didn't do, it was Iraq. And while NK
> might
> > have done to show who's boss, the fact that they
> > picked Iraq when NK might have done better, if,
> for
> > example, they wanted to get rid if a bad guiy who
> was
> > actually a potential military threat, shows that
> > there are other forces at play.
>
> Yes, but those "other forces" are quite possibly
> distinct from any desire of
> the US government to control the oil market.
OK, I'll say this REAL SLOW and sorta LOUD. I A M N O T A N E C O N O M I C R E D U C T I O N I S T. I did not appriove of the form that Thos cast his question. I said it was reductionist and he agreed. I did not say -- NOT! -- that power and bases reduce to concern about oil. I did say -- DID! -- that they were factors in the analysis. I am committed, therefore, to the view that there are non oil, indeed not economic factors involved. I embrace this commitment. Am I making myself clear yet? Say after me, "Justin is not an economic reductionist."
For
> instance, NK probably has
> nukes, and even if they don't, they have the
> conventional military power to
> squash Seoul in an instant.
That's probably true.
If we thought Iraq
> could and would blow Tel
> Aviv up if we were to invade, we probably wouldn't.
That is less clear. They might do something awful to Israel.
>
> > Oil, for example. But
> > note that I approached the idea of choosing one
> factor
> > as dominant with considerable diffidence. That was
> > Thos' question, not mine. I have a three factor
> > analysis. I stand by it so far, and still think
> that
> > of the three factors, oil is the most central. I
> doubt
> > that we'd be here today without the other two,
> though.
> > jks
>
> I don't doubt that oil is a consideration (at least,
> it was an explicit
> reason for the first Gulf War). But your suggestion
> that the motivation is
> to gain a stranglehold over Europe and Japan strikes
> me as bizarre.
Actually, what I said was that control over Iraqi oil would have that effect. As Carrol correctly noted, that does not mean that it is therefore a conscious motivation. I did not say that it was a conscious motivation. I would not be surprised, however, if it was. Rummy & Wolfie are smart and cynical guys. Why do you think that would be bizarre? Because we're such good pals with Old Europe, those cheese-eating surrender monkeys, that we would never even want to put ourselves in a position of advantage over them? Don't be naive, young Luke. ("Impressive, very impressive, but you are not a Jedi yet!")
Darthjks
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