Bina on Iraq

JBrown72073 at cs.com JBrown72073 at cs.com
Sun Feb 23 08:18:49 PST 2003



>>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.
>
>- -- Luke

I think it's quite reasonable. Who was making deals for oil development in Iraq before the US cooked up the current crisis? As Chomsky points out, not US or British majors, but France and Russia. Sooner rather than later, the sanctions were going to be lifted, with Old Euro oil companies getting access, leading possibly to lower prices as Iraqi oil production increases, but certainly to unpleasant competition. Or, plan B, the Bush gang could start a war. Of course, Iraq has *so* much more to recommend it as a target, I'm sure Wolfowitz is peeing all over himself.

Carl Remick quoted Terry Jones:
>But then the violence being done to the English language is probably the
>price we have to pay for cheap petrol.

Who's getting cheap petrol in return for slaughters (linguistic and otherwise)? Not Terry Jones. Surely the Bush conspiracy would rather restrict supply than see it in the hands of competitors.

Jenny Brown



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