Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-11 Thread Keith Addison


subject. Dispensationalists are also easily identified by negatives - 
what you don't see them doing is talking a lot about such basic 
Christian tenets as God is Love for instance, or the Sermon on the 
Mount, let alone practising such things, quite the opposite.


	This view is neither Christian, nor biblical.  It's a 
perversion of the scriptures; writings which demand stewardship of 
creation.


It's anti-Christian, IMHO, little more than a demonic cult, at its 
worst. I'd take action against an attack on a genuine religion on the 
list, but I don't believe this is a religion, it's a perversion, as 
you say, and a highly lethal one.


Nice references too Robert, thanks.

I reffed these before:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1195568,00.html
Comment
US Christian fundamentalists are driving Bush's Middle East policy 
Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power 
George Monbiot Tuesday April 20, 2004


http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13750
Fundamentally Unsound
By Michelle Goldberg, Salon
August 2, 2002


Useful, I think.

(No, I'm not a Christian, though I was brought up as one. I don't 
have a religion, nor feel any need of one.)


What's all this got to do with BIOFUELS?!!! LOL!

Apart from what you say about the environment Robert (quite correct), 
would-be topic cops could try this:


Oil and Israel
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/BIOFUEL/34947/

(Which caused us a lot of trouble! - pretty much proving what Mr 
Dreyfuss says, as if it needed any proof.)


Best wishes

Keith



Rick Littrell wrote:


Dear Robert,

Thanks for your comments. They are vary helpful.   I'm not sure I 
understand this  Neo Con Dispensationalist principle  but I also 
have to confess I don't understand the Neo Cons all that well.


	Not all NeoCons are dispensationalists, nor are all 
dispensationalists NeoCons, and I certainly can't claim to 
understand either.  (I find dispensationalism the most confusing 
eschatology ever devised by mankind!)  There are enough people in 
powerful positions who use one perspective or the other to justify 
policies that amount to fascism, and by couching their rhetoric in 
pseudo-religious phrasing lead a great many sincere people astray. 
This is a complex issue, so by being brief, I will not do justice to 
the topic.  It has, however, been discussed at length in this forum, 
and you can learn a lot by searching the archives.


	You are likely aware that the United States is a very diverse 
nation, comprised of people from a wide range of political and 
religious persuasions; among these a large group of very zealous 
Christians constitutes a kind of critical, political mass.  Many 
Christians believe that worldly society opposes their core belief 
structure, they feel persecuted and oppressed by liberal 
society, and further, that it is their right as Americans to 
demand political representation for their point of view.  This has 
been exploited by some people in Christian leadership circles who 
seek to galvanize support for legislation that would return 
morality to American society.  (Has American society EVER been 
moral?)


	Because this group of Christian people is actually rather 
diverse, there are some common denominator issues that cut across 
many racial, ethnic and denominational barriers.  I will explain 
these as best as I can.  At its core, the most widespread Christian 
point of view sees the world as a hostile place, where strong moral 
leadership is necessary to guard against danger.  Thus, a powerful 
father figure helps to focus support.  (This explains the vehement 
opposition to Mr. Clinton we witnessed a few years ago.)  In a world 
filled with evil, strength is necessary for protection; therefore, a 
large military budget and strict policing benefits society. 
Business exists in a competitive environment, so a legitimate role 
of the government is to protect American business interests from 
hostile actions by foreign companies and governments.  These people 
see themselves as intrinsically good and moral.  Their affluence 
is taken as an indicator that God is blessing their course of 
action. Anyone who lives beyond the bounds of their narrowly defined 
morality can be dismissed as worthy of nothing more than punishment. 
Therefore, these moral people want strict laws, long imprisonment 
for criminals, and think nothing of killing godless foreigners or 
ignoring the plight of the poor, a group of subhumans deserving of 
God's wrath for not following his edicts.  (That must be, after all, 
why they're poor!)  They see liberal people as weak, immoral and 
oblivious to the truth of their perspective.


	A radical political movement has overtaken the Republican 
party, but interestingly, it started with disgruntled Democrats. (In 
the 1980s they were called Reagan Democrats) The NeoCons (and 
their allies) see an opportunity for popular support among the above 
described conservative Christians (an utter oxymoron from a 

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-11 Thread robert luis rabello



(The shifting sands of truth)
There are some web pages that have tried to keep count, but it's a tough 
job. Funny how people don't notice, isn't it? I suppose Lakoff's 
explanation holds good (though he's not in very good odour right now, 
and he wasn't at all the first to observe this:


One of the fundamental findings of cognitive science is that people 
think in terms of frames and metaphors - conceptual structures. The 
frames are in the synapses of our brains - physically present in the 
form of neural circuitry. When the facts don't fit the frames, the 
frames are kept and the facts ignored. -- George Lakoff


	The frames of reference used by the current administration have been 
foisted upon the American people in a highly effective propaganda 
campaign.  I often wonder why so few of us notice what's happening. 
Perhaps moving to someone else's country has enabled me to see the 
mind control that many of my fellow citizens can't seem to comprehend.



(The warmonger's perspective on civilian casualties)
As indeed they would be, if they had any sense - and as you say, as 
Americans would be too.


But it's the hallmark of the kind of thinking you're having to contend 
with NOT to put yourself in the other man's position. You're special, 
after all, and if the powers-behind-the-powers-that-be have done their 
jobs properly, you've already dehumanised the other guy to scumbag 
status, beneath your contempt, let alone your powers of empathy. But 
just who is then dehumanised? It's perhaps only our imaginations that 
keep us human, and that's exactly what they're for - to put yourself in 
the other guy's position.


	What bothers me most about this, is how the warmongering talk is 
couched in pseudo Christian rhetoric.  The antithesis of Christian 
philosophy is the very apathy you've outlined above.  I personally 
have a hard time liking people, but as a Christian, I would certainly 
not wish anyone harm.  Arrogance and humility are polar opposite 
concepts.  Christianity requires humility.  The attitudes being 
promoted in my country right now are not Christian.


(Mr. Chomsky)
Well, that's their problem, isn't it? And, to put myself in the other 
guy's position, it's not quite the same as my dismissing people like Tim 
LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins as dangerous maniacs, that's easily 
demonstrated , and it's easily demonstrated that Chomsky does not talk 
nonsense. Conservatives in the U.S., or at least the sector of them that 
we're talking of, are now famous for being unable to abide any views 
that differ from their own, as you've remarked, their intolerance is 
extreme (and most unAmerican, or anti-American). Elsewhere Chomsky is 
highly respected, whether he's agreed with or not.


Anyway, okay, it's also your problem, you have to deal with these guys. 


Frequently!  And yes, it IS a problem!


(Pro Syrian protest in Lebanon)
Virtually the entire US media ignored that, and were heavily criticised 
for their bias.


	Yet we still hear much grumbling about the liberal bias in the U.S. 
media.  Ironic, isn't it?


Well, as you pointed out, military power is a blunt weapon. When the 
only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. 
- Abraham Maslow.


	This is why military power should be employed with great reluctance 
and careful oversight.  The job of a soldier is to impose his nation's 
will on other people while preserving his own life.  If he dies, he 
can no longer serve his country.  We consider his willingness to risk 
his own life as noble somehow, but in fact, the conduct of warfare is 
a ruthless business.  There is nothing noble in killing, no matter how 
much patriotic language we employ to beautify the brutal.


(Corruption)
Um, especially with American involvement, with all due respect, on a 
much bigger scale than Saddam ever had the resources for. The whole 
thing is corrupt, all the way from the lies you mention to Halliburton 
et very much al to the imposition, or attempted imposition of all the 
one-sided neoliberal pro-corporate rules to rip the place off and all 
its resources. And they talk about democracy! LOL! Barefaced cheek is 
not something they seem to be short of.


	The idea was that we would liberate the nation, then utilize profit 
derived from the sale of Iraqi resources for rebuilding the country's 
infrastructure.  This is pure NeoCon thinking: Use a small force, 
supported with overwhelming firepower, then let someone else pay for 
the damage. . .  When we're done, we'll support a democracy that 
supports us; all done in the name of God and country.



I'm sceptical, Robert, I'm a journalist after all. But I don't find much 
or any conflict between due scepticism/realism and optimism. Is it 
people you're suspicious of, or their institutions and organisations and 
corporations? They're not the same.


I know myself well enough not to trust anyone like me! :- )



Did you read that piece? It's worth a read:
Incident 

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-10 Thread robert luis rabello




Dear Robert,

Thanks for your comments. They are vary helpful.   I'm not sure I 
understand this  Neo Con Dispensationalist principle  but I also have 
to confess I don't understand the Neo Cons all that well.


	Not all NeoCons are dispensationalists, nor are all 
dispensationalists NeoCons, and I certainly can't claim to understand 
either.  (I find dispensationalism the most confusing eschatology ever 
devised by mankind!)  There are enough people in powerful positions 
who use one perspective or the other to justify policies that amount 
to fascism, and by couching their rhetoric in pseudo-religious 
phrasing lead a great many sincere people astray.  This is a complex 
issue, so by being brief, I will not do justice to the topic.  It has, 
however, been discussed at length in this forum, and you can learn a 
lot by searching the archives.


	You are likely aware that the United States is a very diverse nation, 
comprised of people from a wide range of political and religious 
persuasions; among these a large group of very zealous Christians 
constitutes a kind of critical, political mass.  Many Christians 
believe that worldly society opposes their core belief structure, 
they feel persecuted and oppressed by liberal society, and 
further, that it is their right as Americans to demand political 
representation for their point of view.  This has been exploited by 
some people in Christian leadership circles who seek to galvanize 
support for legislation that would return morality to American 
society.  (Has American society EVER been moral?)


	Because this group of Christian people is actually rather diverse, 
there are some common denominator issues that cut across many 
racial, ethnic and denominational barriers.  I will explain these as 
best as I can.  At its core, the most widespread Christian point of 
view sees the world as a hostile place, where strong moral leadership 
is necessary to guard against danger.  Thus, a powerful father 
figure helps to focus support.  (This explains the vehement 
opposition to Mr. Clinton we witnessed a few years ago.)  In a world 
filled with evil, strength is necessary for protection; therefore, a 
large military budget and strict policing benefits society.  Business 
exists in a competitive environment, so a legitimate role of the 
government is to protect American business interests from hostile 
actions by foreign companies and governments.  These people see 
themselves as intrinsically good and moral.  Their affluence is 
taken as an indicator that God is blessing their course of action. 
Anyone who lives beyond the bounds of their narrowly defined morality 
can be dismissed as worthy of nothing more than punishment. 
Therefore, these moral people want strict laws, long imprisonment 
for criminals, and think nothing of killing godless foreigners or 
ignoring the plight of the poor, a group of subhumans deserving of 
God's wrath for not following his edicts.  (That must be, after all, 
why they're poor!)  They see liberal people as weak, immoral and 
oblivious to the truth of their perspective.


	A radical political movement has overtaken the Republican party, but 
interestingly, it started with disgruntled Democrats. (In the 1980s 
they were called Reagan Democrats) The NeoCons (and their allies) 
see an opportunity for popular support among the above described 
conservative Christians (an utter oxymoron from a biblical 
perspective) to promote an agenda of American greatness and power. 
After Vietnam and Watergate, the American military and the Republican 
party were in disarray; providing perfect platforms from whence to 
project radicalism.  Galvanizing the support of the Evangelical 
Christians I've outlined above by the clever manipulation of certain 
media outlets (it began with radio, moved to cable television and now 
has evolved into internet blogs), they are promoting their 
pro-business, pro-military and pro-empire agenda in the name of God 
and country.  The NeoCons seek to use American economic and military 
power to quite literally dominate the world for the good of all 
people.  The Christians who support them really believe that doing so 
will prepare the world for the parousia of Jesus Christ, but really, 
what they're prepare for is the coming of THE ANTICHRIST, as they 
refer to him.


	This is where dispensationalism enters the picture.  The eschatology 
is so confusing that only a true believer who is steeped in the 
doctrine can comprehend all of its nuance.  It's been hammered from 
pulpits, in print and by TV preachers for so long, traditional 
Christian eschatology has been utterly eclipsed.  Dispensationalism 
teaches that God's promises (particularly those relating to land of 
the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East) to Abraham's descendants 
must be literally fulfilled.  (This conveniently excludes the 
descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's first born son, from whom the Arabs 
claim their lineage.)  God supposedly divided his 

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-09 Thread robert luis rabello




Hi All,

Please do not misunderstand my point about Korea. I do not want my country
to invade North Korea. (I never want the U.S. to invade anyone) I have many
friends in the South whose lives would be destroyed. I was comparing the
relative threat between the leaders of Iraq and North Korea relative to U.S.
security.

Tom


	I believe you made that point very well, sir.  The comparison is 
appropriate.


robert luis rabello
The Edge of Justice
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=9782

Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/


___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/


RE: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-08 Thread Tom Irwin

Dear Rick,

In principle you are correct but does anyone really want to occupy an area
after dropping nukes on it. Besides it would have spoiled the oil. As for
having enough troops, no way I can agree. Why do you think those poor men
and women in the National Guard are doing service there? I was always
under the opinion that those who were in that branch we're there to protect
our soil not our national interests.

I agree with analysis of North Korea. Besides that really is more a problem
for China and Japan. China's got a madman in their backyard and has to keep
him pointed at the U.S. or else he points elsewhere, no?

Tom
 

-Original Message-
From: Rick Littrell
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 4/7/05 1:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

Dear Tom,

These are excellent points.  In the case of France though the German 
army was a bit more of a challenge than the Iraq army, the French 
actually wanted us there.   The response we got from the French is what 
Bush apparently thought he would get from the Iraqis (sp?).
Unfortunately, he had no equivalent to DeGaul. 

I don't agree about not being able to occupy with fire power.   That is 
no longer true.   How many troops were lost invading Japan?  He had more

than enough troops to occupy Iraq had he treated it as an enemy instead 
of a victim of a dictatorship although he would have been an even bigger

war criminal than he is now. 

As for North Korea, I think he had sense enough to know ... OK,  the 
people around him had sense enough to know,  that the North Korean Army 
could inflict unacceptable losses on us even if we won and we would risk

complications with China.  He doesn't fight  from principle.  As many 
in this group have pointed out, he is basically a bully.

Rick

Tom Irwin wrote:

Dear Rick,

What makes you think the U.S. did a good job with the invasion? It was
a
major cluster. Sure we beat up a third world army but failed to
send the
forces to close the borders. Iraq is the size of France. We invaded
France
in 1944 with about 1 million soldiers, Iraq with 120,000. Infantry is
designed to fight for and hold territory. Our army fought extremely
well,
detroyed their army but it simply is too small a force to occupy a
country
that size. You can't occupy with firepower, you occupy with manpower.
This
is just basic military strategy. Do not think for an instant that I
believe
that we invaded to free the Iraqi people. If we really wanted to go
after a
really bad dictator where our military is extremely exposed and where
there
is a greater national threat, we'ed be in North Korea. Why aren't we
there?
There's certainly weapons of mass destruction? WHY? WHY? WHY? There's
no oil
there. 

Tom


-Original Message-
From: Rick Littrell
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 4/5/05 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

Dear Scott,

I think the thesis here is a bit of a reach.  At the time of the 
invasion the dollar was not in the shape it is now. In fact one reason 
for the decline is the cost of the war.   I still lean to the theory 
that Sadam was seen as a threat to the region and eventually would 
threaten US access to cheep oil by occupying his neighbors.  The Bush 
administration calculated that it would be cheaper to attack him rather

than contain him.   It is a sobering thought that one of the geniuses 
that believed this is now head of the world bank.   As  far as the Euro

vs the dollar,  The big energy companies don't care what they get paid 
in or by who.  At one point one of the companies that wants to drill in

the Arctic admitted they'd probably sell the oil to Japan Rather than 
try to pipe it to the lower 48.

Rick

Scott wrote:

  

How many of us had an AHA moment when reading this article?

We now see the real reason for this illegal war [or at least one of
the
reasons].

Saddam Hussein was about to be given a clean bill of health by the UN
inspection team beacuse he obviously didn't have WMD's.  He was then


going
  

to open the spigots and start selling oil.  Not only was he going to


sell
  

oil for Euros exacerbating the decline of the dollar, but that would


also
  

have driven the global price of oil down.

Clearly, EXXON/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco et. al.  did not want


the
  

price of oil to go down.

ExxonMobil Corporation reported the fourth quarter of 2004 as its


highest
  

quarter ever...
http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/featurearticles/2005/MarketingStrategies
/


0503ms.asp
  

PEACE
Scott
- Original Message - 
 



Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may
  

become
  

   

  

known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net

RE: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-08 Thread Tom Irwin

Hi All,

Please do not misunderstand my point about Korea. I do not want my country
to invade North Korea. (I never want the U.S. to invade anyone) I have many
friends in the South whose lives would be destroyed. I was comparing the
relative threat between the leaders of Iraq and North Korea relative to U.S.
security.

Tom
  

-Original Message-
From: robert luis rabello
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 4/7/05 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

Rick Littrell wrote:

 Dear Tom,
 
 These are excellent points.  In the case of France though the German 
 army was a bit more of a challenge than the Iraq army, the French 
 actually wanted us there.

You bring up something interesting, Rick.  I would like to
clarify, 
however, that the German troops we Americans faced in France were far 
from the crack, front line divisions that initially invaded Western 
Europe.  I have read somewhere that the best troops in the German army 
were transferred to face the Soviets during the Operation Against 
Bolshevism and in their place, second line divisions and reserves 
filled the void.  Field Marshal Rommel once described Fortress 
Europa as Cloud Cuckoo Land.  Nonetheless, those German troops put 
up a formidable fight.  They were well equipped and led by an 
outstanding officer corps.

In the case of Iraq, we were told that they constituted an
imminent 
threat.  I remember hearing about WMD warheads able to fire on 30 
minute notice.  We were warned about mushroom clouds over American 
cities.  When our troops invaded Iraq, the resistance the Iraqi army 
actually mounted against us has to qualify for among the most inept in 
history.  They didn't even destroy a single bridge leading to Baghdad!

Perhaps SOME of the Iraqis wanted us there.  Perhaps we had SOME
good 
will among the civilian population, at least initially.  Our inability 
to secure the place, coupled with an increasingly effective 
insurgency, compounded by the inability of Iraqis to agree on a 
government, essentially led us into the quagmire we now face in that 
country.

Whenever I say: I told you so, I now hear a list of 
accomplishments and derogatory remarks about my allegedly liberal 
perspective from the people who think we've done well with our current 
Middle East meddling.


 I don't agree about not being able to occupy with fire power.   That
is 
 no longer true.   How many troops were lost invading Japan?  He had
more 
 than enough troops to occupy Iraq had he treated it as an enemy
instead 
 of a victim of a dictatorship although he would have been an even
bigger 
 war criminal than he is now.

Here I disagree with you strongly.  American military planners
are 
trying very hard not to replicate Vietnam, and among the techniques 
they espouse is the idea that force multipliers (such as 
overwhelming air power) can make up for troop strength on the ground. 
  This serves to limit the number of possible American casualties, but 
it has a few unintended consequences.  The first, is that American 
soldiers have to rely on brute firepower to accomplish their 
objectives; a principle that serves the soldier well, but often does 
so at the cost of civilian lives in urban areas.  Other people in the 
world interpret this as either cowardice (Why don't those Americans 
just stand up and fight?  This is a sentiment I've often heard from my 
saintly mother in law, who doesn't understand that the job of a 
soldier is to kill other people, not to die himself!), or excessive 
force.  I've written before that the military is, at best, a blunt 
instrument.  Bludgeoning the Iraqi insurgency into submission will 
come at a high cost.  We were not told that this would be the case 
prior to the invasion, and much obfuscation has occurred since then to 
deflect attention away from the truth of the matter.

In the case of Japan, there are several mitigating circumstances
that 
compound comparison of the conflicts.  One of them is cultural. 
Defeat for a Japanese of that era was utterly humiliating, and they 
did not rise up against us when our forces arrived to occupy the 
islands.  (It would also be helpful to tabulate how many American 
soldiers were involved in the occupation of that country.)  Secondly, 
the nation had been effectively reduced to rubble by massive aerial 
bombardment, and the economy was in absolute shambles from the war. 
Thirdly, the use of atomic weapons (not merely the threat of them) 
crossed a threshold that had never been reached before.  We didn't 
have the ability at the time to utterly destroy the Japanese nation 
with atom bombs, but their leadership didn't know that, and further, 
no one else on earth was capable of retaliating against us at the 
time.  Additionally, Douglas MacArthur did a brilliant job as that 
nation's administrator until an elected government could take his 
place.  That achievement is the shining moment of MacArthur's career

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-08 Thread Rick Littrell



Thanks for your comments. They are vary helpful.   I'm not sure I 
understand this  Neo Con Dispensationalist principle  but I also have 
to confess I don't understand the Neo Cons all that well.  Do you think 
the is a political philosophy here or is it just another name for 
business interests who want no limits on their prerogatives and 
profits?   Who would you suggest reading o understand them better?  How 
much of what Bush does is connected with their philosophy?  I guess the 
most important questions for me are how much of the administrations 
positions on environment are philosophical and how much pragmatic.   As 
several people have pointed out the collapse of cheap energy i.e., oil 
and gas will have the most profound effect on peace and war, economics,  
and even the nature of life itself in the very near future.   The energy 
corporations seem to be looking at this from the standpoint of just 
maximizing profits with no attention to other consequences.   Is this 
just shortsighted self interest or a political philosophy?


Rick

robert luis rabello wrote:


Rick Littrell wrote:


Dear Tom,

These are excellent points.  In the case of France though the German 
army was a bit more of a challenge than the Iraq army, the French 
actually wanted us there.



You bring up something interesting, Rick.  I would like to 
clarify, however, that the German troops we Americans faced in France 
were far from the crack, front line divisions that initially invaded 
Western Europe.  I have read somewhere that the best troops in the 
German army were transferred to face the Soviets during the Operation 
Against Bolshevism and in their place, second line divisions and 
reserves filled the void.  Field Marshal Rommel once described 
Fortress Europa as Cloud Cuckoo Land.  Nonetheless, those German 
troops put up a formidable fight.  They were well equipped and led by 
an outstanding officer corps.


In the case of Iraq, we were told that they constituted an 
imminent threat.  I remember hearing about WMD warheads able to fire 
on 30 minute notice.  We were warned about mushroom clouds over 
American cities.  When our troops invaded Iraq, the resistance the 
Iraqi army actually mounted against us has to qualify for among the 
most inept in history.  They didn't even destroy a single bridge 
leading to Baghdad!


Perhaps SOME of the Iraqis wanted us there.  Perhaps we had SOME 
good will among the civilian population, at least initially.  Our 
inability to secure the place, coupled with an increasingly effective 
insurgency, compounded by the inability of Iraqis to agree on a 
government, essentially led us into the quagmire we now face in that 
country.


Whenever I say: I told you so, I now hear a list of 
accomplishments and derogatory remarks about my allegedly liberal 
perspective from the people who think we've done well with our current 
Middle East meddling.



I don't agree about not being able to occupy with fire power.   That 
is no longer true.   How many troops were lost invading Japan?  He 
had more than enough troops to occupy Iraq had he treated it as an 
enemy instead of a victim of a dictatorship although he would have 
been an even bigger war criminal than he is now.



Here I disagree with you strongly.  American military planners are 
trying very hard not to replicate Vietnam, and among the techniques 
they espouse is the idea that force multipliers (such as 
overwhelming air power) can make up for troop strength on the ground. 
 This serves to limit the number of possible American casualties, but 
it has a few unintended consequences.  The first, is that American 
soldiers have to rely on brute firepower to accomplish their 
objectives; a principle that serves the soldier well, but often does 
so at the cost of civilian lives in urban areas.  Other people in the 
world interpret this as either cowardice (Why don't those Americans 
just stand up and fight?  This is a sentiment I've often heard from my 
saintly mother in law, who doesn't understand that the job of a 
soldier is to kill other people, not to die himself!), or excessive 
force.  I've written before that the military is, at best, a blunt 
instrument.  Bludgeoning the Iraqi insurgency into submission will 
come at a high cost.  We were not told that this would be the case 
prior to the invasion, and much obfuscation has occurred since then to 
deflect attention away from the truth of the matter.


In the case of Japan, there are several mitigating circumstances 
that compound comparison of the conflicts.  One of them is cultural. 
Defeat for a Japanese of that era was utterly humiliating, and they 
did not rise up against us when our forces arrived to occupy the 
islands.  (It would also be helpful to tabulate how many American 
soldiers were involved in the occupation of that country.)  Secondly, 
the nation had been effectively reduced to rubble by massive aerial 
bombardment, and the economy was in 

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-08 Thread Ken Provost


On Apr 8, 2005, at 12:25 PM, Rick Littrell wrote:




 I guess the most important questions for me are how much of the 
administrations positions
on environment are philosophical and how much pragmatic.   As several 
people have pointed
out the collapse of cheap energy i.e., oil and gas will have the most 
profound effect on peace
and war, economics,  and even the nature of life itself in the very 
near future. The energy
corporations seem to be looking at this from the standpoint of just 
maximizing profits with no
attention to other consequences.   Is this just shortsighted self 
interest or a political philosophy?






That's a damn good question. I suppose some members of the 
administration believe that
the environment won't suffer too much, that oil will last forever or 
will be easily replaced by
coal or nuclear, that global warming is a leftwing myth, etc. -- in 
other words, they're in denial

or are just stupid and lazy, as well as selfish.

The scary bunch think that all or some of the negative consequences of 
their  actions will
actually further their ultimate interests, or are part of God's plan 
anyway (the dispensationalist
philosophy referred to earlier), or will be mitigated by God, or will 
not have an opportunity

to occur prior to God removing the true believers from the earth.

-K

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/


Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-08 Thread Keith Addison




Keith Addison wrote:

(Iraqi forces)

There wasn't much left of them by that time, which I think was the idea.


	This was one of my contentions in the lead up to the war. 
How can a nation whose armed forces have been decimated constitute a 
threat in the traditional, military sense?  Our solution to the 
Iraqi problem was quite conventional from a soldier's point of 
view.  If they'd REALLY been a threat, wouldn't they have put up a 
more effective fight?


	Trouble was, they weren't really a threat, so we had to come 
up with another story to cover the first lie.  How many versions of 
truth have we been fed thus far?


There are some web pages that have tried to keep count, but it's a 
tough job. Funny how people don't notice, isn't it? I suppose 
Lakoff's explanation holds good (though he's not in very good odour 
right now, and he wasn't at all the first to observe this:


One of the fundamental findings of cognitive science is that people 
think in terms of frames and metaphors - conceptual structures. The 
frames are in the synapses of our brains - physically present in the 
form of neural circuitry. When the facts don't fit the frames, the 
frames are kept and the facts ignored. -- George Lakoff


Hey, here are some more:

It is the nature of humans to ignore what is true but uncomfortable, 
and  accept what is known to be false, but comforting.  -- H L Menken


It is impossible to reason someone out of something that they did 
not  reason themselves into in the first place. -- Jonathan Swift.


Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting 
convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day. -- 
Bertrand Russell.


:-)

And hence the bizarre results of the US opinion polls.

But does anybody welcome illegal invaders? I don't think many 
Iraqis were under many illusions about that.


	This is a point I've made to many warmongers over here.  They 
say things like: When there's a war going on, civilians should get 
out of the way! Or: Those people are supporting the insurgency.


As indeed they would be, if they had any sense - and as you say, as 
Americans would be too.


But it's the hallmark of the kind of thinking you're having to 
contend with NOT to put yourself in the other man's position. You're 
special, after all, and if the powers-behind-the-powers-that-be have 
done their jobs properly, you've already dehumanised the other guy to 
scumbag status, beneath your contempt, let alone your powers of 
empathy. But just who is then dehumanised? It's perhaps only our 
imaginations that keep us human, and that's exactly what they're for 
- to put yourself in the other guy's position.


	Such sentiments are easily maintained whenever we're 
discussing someone ELSE'S home.  I don't think many Americans would 
appreciate being liberated by foreigners.  We have a lot of guns 
too, and many of us know how to use them.



Actually I agree that the elections were a success ...  of 
opposition to the United States. What is being suppressed - except 
for Middle East specialists, who know about it perfectly well and 
are writing about it, or people who in fact have read the 
newspapers in the last couple of years - what's being suppressed is 
the fact that the United States had to be brought kicking and 
screaming into accepting elections. The U.S. was strongly opposed 
to them. I wrote about the early stages of this in a book that came 
out a year ago, which only discussed the early stages of U.S. 
opposition. But it increased. The U.S. wanted to write a 
constitution, it wanted to impose some kind of caucus system that 
the U.S. could control, and it tried to impose extremely harsh 
neo-liberal rules, like you mentioned, which even Iraqi businessmen 
were strongly opposed to.


	Do you have any additional references that support Mr. 
Chomsky's view?  (He is not well regarded by conservatives in the 
U.S., who tend to dismiss anything he says as nonsense.)


Well, that's their problem, isn't it? And, to put myself in the other 
guy's position, it's not quite the same as my dismissing people like 
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins as dangerous maniacs, that's easily 
demonstrated , and it's easily demonstrated that Chomsky does not 
talk nonsense. Conservatives in the U.S., or at least the sector of 
them that we're talking of, are now famous for being unable to abide 
any views that differ from their own, as you've remarked, their 
intolerance is extreme (and most unAmerican, or anti-American). 
Elsewhere Chomsky is highly respected, whether he's agreed with or 
not.


Anyway, okay, it's also your problem, you have to deal with these 
guys. I don't have additional references to hand, though I'm sure I 
could find them. I think this has been fairly well charted by folks 
like the BBC and the Guardian etc - it's on my hard disk, but I'd 
have to search. I should think Chomsky referenced his book though.


I get my news from the radio, so this is the first I've heard of 
this 

RE: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-07 Thread Tom Irwin

Dear Rick,

What makes you think the U.S. did a good job with the invasion? It was a
major cluster. Sure we beat up a third world army but failed to send the
forces to close the borders. Iraq is the size of France. We invaded France
in 1944 with about 1 million soldiers, Iraq with 120,000. Infantry is
designed to fight for and hold territory. Our army fought extremely well,
detroyed their army but it simply is too small a force to occupy a country
that size. You can't occupy with firepower, you occupy with manpower. This
is just basic military strategy. Do not think for an instant that I believe
that we invaded to free the Iraqi people. If we really wanted to go after a
really bad dictator where our military is extremely exposed and where there
is a greater national threat, we'ed be in North Korea. Why aren't we there?
There's certainly weapons of mass destruction? WHY? WHY? WHY? There's no oil
there. 

Tom


-Original Message-
From: Rick Littrell
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 4/5/05 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

Dear Scott,

I think the thesis here is a bit of a reach.  At the time of the 
invasion the dollar was not in the shape it is now. In fact one reason 
for the decline is the cost of the war.   I still lean to the theory 
that Sadam was seen as a threat to the region and eventually would 
threaten US access to cheep oil by occupying his neighbors.  The Bush 
administration calculated that it would be cheaper to attack him rather 
than contain him.   It is a sobering thought that one of the geniuses 
that believed this is now head of the world bank.   As  far as the Euro 
vs the dollar,  The big energy companies don't care what they get paid 
in or by who.  At one point one of the companies that wants to drill in 
the Arctic admitted they'd probably sell the oil to Japan Rather than 
try to pipe it to the lower 48.

Rick

Scott wrote:

How many of us had an AHA moment when reading this article?

We now see the real reason for this illegal war [or at least one of the
reasons].

Saddam Hussein was about to be given a clean bill of health by the UN
inspection team beacuse he obviously didn't have WMD's.  He was then
going
to open the spigots and start selling oil.  Not only was he going to
sell
oil for Euros exacerbating the decline of the dollar, but that would
also
have driven the global price of oil down.

Clearly, EXXON/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco et. al.  did not want
the
price of oil to go down.

ExxonMobil Corporation reported the fourth quarter of 2004 as its
highest
quarter ever...
http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/featurearticles/2005/MarketingStrategies/
0503ms.asp


PEACE
Scott
- Original Message - 
  

 Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may
become


known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/

  

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/


re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-07 Thread DHAJOGLO

 Iraq Invasion May Be Remembered as
 Start of the Age of Oil Scarcity
 By Robert Collier
 San Francisco Chronicle
 Sunday 20 March 2005
 http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/032105EA.shtml

 Production tumbles in post-Hussein era as
 more countries vie for shrinking supplies
...
 If it weren't for the insurgency, Iraq would produce
 at least another million barrels day -- and maybe two,
 said Gal Luft, co-director of the
 Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington.
 Iraq is very much missing from the market, and
 it's one of the reasons why prices have risen so much.


I love it how people like Gal Luft can quickly ignore the cause-effect 
relationship... If it wasn't for the US invasion the insurgency wouldn't exist.

...
 Fast-rising energy prices helped the Bush administration
 rally votes in Congress for its proposal to open the
 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
 That proposal squeezed out a victory by a two-vote margin
 in the Senate last week.

But then again, if it wasn't for the invasion that cuased the insurgency that 
caused the oil shortarge then the ANWR may have remained protected.


___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/


Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-07 Thread Rick Littrell



These are excellent points.  In the case of France though the German 
army was a bit more of a challenge than the Iraq army, the French 
actually wanted us there.   The response we got from the French is what 
Bush apparently thought he would get from the Iraqis (sp?).
Unfortunately, he had no equivalent to DeGaul. 

I don't agree about not being able to occupy with fire power.   That is 
no longer true.   How many troops were lost invading Japan?  He had more 
than enough troops to occupy Iraq had he treated it as an enemy instead 
of a victim of a dictatorship although he would have been an even bigger 
war criminal than he is now. 

As for North Korea, I think he had sense enough to know ... OK,  the 
people around him had sense enough to know,  that the North Korean Army 
could inflict unacceptable losses on us even if we won and we would risk 
complications with China.  He doesn't fight  from principle.  As many 
in this group have pointed out, he is basically a bully.


Rick

Tom Irwin wrote:


Dear Rick,

What makes you think the U.S. did a good job with the invasion? It was a
major cluster. Sure we beat up a third world army but failed to send the
forces to close the borders. Iraq is the size of France. We invaded France
in 1944 with about 1 million soldiers, Iraq with 120,000. Infantry is
designed to fight for and hold territory. Our army fought extremely well,
detroyed their army but it simply is too small a force to occupy a country
that size. You can't occupy with firepower, you occupy with manpower. This
is just basic military strategy. Do not think for an instant that I believe
that we invaded to free the Iraqi people. If we really wanted to go after a
really bad dictator where our military is extremely exposed and where there
is a greater national threat, we'ed be in North Korea. Why aren't we there?
There's certainly weapons of mass destruction? WHY? WHY? WHY? There's no oil
there. 


Tom


-Original Message-
From: Rick Littrell
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 4/5/05 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

Dear Scott,

I think the thesis here is a bit of a reach.  At the time of the 
invasion the dollar was not in the shape it is now. In fact one reason 
for the decline is the cost of the war.   I still lean to the theory 
that Sadam was seen as a threat to the region and eventually would 
threaten US access to cheep oil by occupying his neighbors.  The Bush 
administration calculated that it would be cheaper to attack him rather 
than contain him.   It is a sobering thought that one of the geniuses 
that believed this is now head of the world bank.   As  far as the Euro 
vs the dollar,  The big energy companies don't care what they get paid 
in or by who.  At one point one of the companies that wants to drill in 
the Arctic admitted they'd probably sell the oil to Japan Rather than 
try to pipe it to the lower 48.


Rick

Scott wrote:

 


How many of us had an AHA moment when reading this article?

We now see the real reason for this illegal war [or at least one of the
reasons].

Saddam Hussein was about to be given a clean bill of health by the UN
inspection team beacuse he obviously didn't have WMD's.  He was then
   


going
 


to open the spigots and start selling oil.  Not only was he going to
   


sell
 


oil for Euros exacerbating the decline of the dollar, but that would
   


also
 


have driven the global price of oil down.

Clearly, EXXON/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco et. al.  did not want
   


the
 


price of oil to go down.

ExxonMobil Corporation reported the fourth quarter of 2004 as its
   


highest
 


quarter ever...
http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/featurearticles/2005/MarketingStrategies/
   


0503ms.asp
 


PEACE
Scott
- Original Message - 



   


Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may
 


become
 

  

 


known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/



   


___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/

 


___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-07 Thread robert luis rabello




Dear Tom,

These are excellent points.  In the case of France though the German 
army was a bit more of a challenge than the Iraq army, the French 
actually wanted us there.


	You bring up something interesting, Rick.  I would like to clarify, 
however, that the German troops we Americans faced in France were far 
from the crack, front line divisions that initially invaded Western 
Europe.  I have read somewhere that the best troops in the German army 
were transferred to face the Soviets during the Operation Against 
Bolshevism and in their place, second line divisions and reserves 
filled the void.  Field Marshal Rommel once described Fortress 
Europa as Cloud Cuckoo Land.  Nonetheless, those German troops put 
up a formidable fight.  They were well equipped and led by an 
outstanding officer corps.


	In the case of Iraq, we were told that they constituted an imminent 
threat.  I remember hearing about WMD warheads able to fire on 30 
minute notice.  We were warned about mushroom clouds over American 
cities.  When our troops invaded Iraq, the resistance the Iraqi army 
actually mounted against us has to qualify for among the most inept in 
history.  They didn't even destroy a single bridge leading to Baghdad!


	Perhaps SOME of the Iraqis wanted us there.  Perhaps we had SOME good 
will among the civilian population, at least initially.  Our inability 
to secure the place, coupled with an increasingly effective 
insurgency, compounded by the inability of Iraqis to agree on a 
government, essentially led us into the quagmire we now face in that 
country.


	Whenever I say: I told you so, I now hear a list of 
accomplishments and derogatory remarks about my allegedly liberal 
perspective from the people who think we've done well with our current 
Middle East meddling.



I don't agree about not being able to occupy with fire power.   That is 
no longer true.   How many troops were lost invading Japan?  He had more 
than enough troops to occupy Iraq had he treated it as an enemy instead 
of a victim of a dictatorship although he would have been an even bigger 
war criminal than he is now.


	Here I disagree with you strongly.  American military planners are 
trying very hard not to replicate Vietnam, and among the techniques 
they espouse is the idea that force multipliers (such as 
overwhelming air power) can make up for troop strength on the ground. 
 This serves to limit the number of possible American casualties, but 
it has a few unintended consequences.  The first, is that American 
soldiers have to rely on brute firepower to accomplish their 
objectives; a principle that serves the soldier well, but often does 
so at the cost of civilian lives in urban areas.  Other people in the 
world interpret this as either cowardice (Why don't those Americans 
just stand up and fight?  This is a sentiment I've often heard from my 
saintly mother in law, who doesn't understand that the job of a 
soldier is to kill other people, not to die himself!), or excessive 
force.  I've written before that the military is, at best, a blunt 
instrument.  Bludgeoning the Iraqi insurgency into submission will 
come at a high cost.  We were not told that this would be the case 
prior to the invasion, and much obfuscation has occurred since then to 
deflect attention away from the truth of the matter.


	In the case of Japan, there are several mitigating circumstances that 
compound comparison of the conflicts.  One of them is cultural. 
Defeat for a Japanese of that era was utterly humiliating, and they 
did not rise up against us when our forces arrived to occupy the 
islands.  (It would also be helpful to tabulate how many American 
soldiers were involved in the occupation of that country.)  Secondly, 
the nation had been effectively reduced to rubble by massive aerial 
bombardment, and the economy was in absolute shambles from the war. 
Thirdly, the use of atomic weapons (not merely the threat of them) 
crossed a threshold that had never been reached before.  We didn't 
have the ability at the time to utterly destroy the Japanese nation 
with atom bombs, but their leadership didn't know that, and further, 
no one else on earth was capable of retaliating against us at the 
time.  Additionally, Douglas MacArthur did a brilliant job as that 
nation's administrator until an elected government could take his 
place.  That achievement is the shining moment of MacArthur's career.


	No similar circumstances exist in Iraq.  If we destroy the Iraqi 
people with our own WMDs, we lose all credibility.  (Do we have any 
left?)  The NeoCon belief that costs would be minimal has been 
laughingly assigned to the scrap heap of unsupported, nationalistic 
nonsense where the theory of a master race, communism and a host of 
other stupidities have been discarded.



As for North Korea, I think he had sense enough to know ... OK,  the 
people around him had sense enough to know,  that the North Korean Army 
could inflict unacceptable 

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-07 Thread Keith Addison




Rick Littrell wrote:


Dear Tom,

These are excellent points.  In the case of France though the 
German army was a bit more of a challenge than the Iraq army, the 
French actually wanted us there.


	You bring up something interesting, Rick.  I would like to 
clarify, however, that the German troops we Americans faced in 
France were far from the crack, front line divisions that initially 
invaded Western Europe.  I have read somewhere that the best troops 
in the German army were transferred to face the Soviets during the 
Operation Against Bolshevism and in their place, second line 
divisions and reserves filled the void.  Field Marshal Rommel once 
described Fortress Europa as Cloud Cuckoo Land.  Nonetheless, 
those German troops put up a formidable fight.  They were well 
equipped and led by an outstanding officer corps.


	In the case of Iraq, we were told that they constituted an 
imminent threat.  I remember hearing about WMD warheads able to 
fire on 30 minute notice.  We were warned about mushroom clouds 
over American cities.  When our troops invaded Iraq, the resistance 
the Iraqi army actually mounted against us has to qualify for among 
the most inept in history.


There wasn't much left of them by that time, which I think was the idea.


They didn't even destroy a single bridge leading to Baghdad!

Perhaps SOME of the Iraqis wanted us there.


Or wanted Saddam gone at any price. But then would the toppling of 
the statue for instance have had to be rigged and stage-managed like 
that, with minimal Iraqi involvement or apparent interest?


Perhaps we had SOME good will among the civilian population, at 
least initially.


But does anybody welcome illegal invaders? I don't think many Iraqis 
were under many illusions about that.


Our inability to secure the place, coupled with an increasingly 
effective insurgency, compounded by the inability of Iraqis to agree 
on a government,


Actually I agree that the elections were a success ...  of 
opposition to the United States. What is being suppressed - except 
for Middle East specialists, who know about it perfectly well and are 
writing about it, or people who in fact have read the newspapers in 
the last couple of years - what's being suppressed is the fact that 
the United States had to be brought kicking and screaming into 
accepting elections. The U.S. was strongly opposed to them. I wrote 
about the early stages of this in a book that came out a year ago, 
which only discussed the early stages of U.S. opposition. But it 
increased. The U.S. wanted to write a constitution, it wanted to 
impose some kind of caucus system that the U.S. could control, and it 
tried to impose extremely harsh neo-liberal rules, like you 
mentioned, which even Iraqi businessmen were strongly opposed to. But 
there has been a very powerful nonviolent resistance in Iraq - far 
more significant than suicide bombers and so on. And it simply 
compelled the United States step by step to back down. That's the 
popular movement of nonviolent resistance that was symbolized by 
Ayatollah Sistani, but it's far broader than that. The population 
simply would not accept the rules that the occupation authorities 
were imposing, and finally Washington was compelled, very 
reluctantly, to accept elections. It tried in every way to undermine 
them.


From: On Globalization, Iraq, and Middle East Studies - Noam Chomsky 
interviewed by Danilo Mandic, March 29, 2005

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=11ItemID=7548


essentially led us into the quagmire we now face in that country.

	Whenever I say: I told you so, I now hear a list of 
accomplishments and derogatory remarks about my allegedly 
liberal perspective from the people who think we've done well with 
our current Middle East meddling.


A common view in the hopelessly spun US, but very rare everywhere 
else, where there's generally more and better coverage and less 
disinfo afoot. Don't you just hate saying I told you so??? It would 
be so much better to've been wrong sometimes. Often!


I don't agree about not being able to occupy with fire power. 
That is no longer true.   How many troops were lost invading Japan? 
He had more than enough troops to occupy Iraq had he treated it as 
an enemy instead of a victim of a dictatorship although he would 
have been an even bigger war criminal than he is now.


	Here I disagree with you strongly.  American military 
planners are trying very hard not to replicate Vietnam, and among 
the techniques they espouse is the idea that force multipliers 
(such as overwhelming air power) can make up for troop strength on 
the ground.  This serves to limit the number of possible American 
casualties, but it has a few unintended consequences.  The first, is 
that American soldiers have to rely on brute firepower to accomplish 
their objectives; a principle that serves the soldier well, but 
often does so at the cost of civilian lives in urban areas.


It's also 

Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-05 Thread Scott

How many of us had an AHA moment when reading this article?

We now see the real reason for this illegal war [or at least one of the
reasons].

Saddam Hussein was about to be given a clean bill of health by the UN
inspection team beacuse he obviously didn't have WMD's.  He was then going
to open the spigots and start selling oil.  Not only was he going to sell
oil for Euros exacerbating the decline of the dollar, but that would also
have driven the global price of oil down.

Clearly, EXXON/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco et. al.  did not want the
price of oil to go down.

ExxonMobil Corporation reported the fourth quarter of 2004 as its highest
quarter ever...
http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/featurearticles/2005/MarketingStrategies/0503ms.asp


PEACE
Scott
- Original Message - 
  Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may become
known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/


Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-05 Thread MH

 One way of looking at is the increased price of petroleum
 satisfies the oil bosses desires for profits and possibly
 the decreased demand for petroleum products from the public
 without increasing taxes to discourage its use sometime in
 the future. 

 Is their any truth to the increased demand from
 India and China for personal transportation which
 might increase petroleum product prices due to the
 lack of supply? 


 How many of us had an AHA moment when reading this article?
 
 We now see the real reason for this illegal war [or at least one of the
 reasons].
 
 Saddam Hussein was about to be given a clean bill of health by the UN
 inspection team beacuse he obviously didn't have WMD's.  He was then going
 to open the spigots and start selling oil.  Not only was he going to sell
 oil for Euros exacerbating the decline of the dollar, but that would also
 have driven the global price of oil down.
 
 Clearly, EXXON/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco et. al.  did not want the
 price of oil to go down.
 
 ExxonMobil Corporation reported the fourth quarter of 2004 as its highest
 quarter ever...
 http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/featurearticles/2005/MarketingStrategies/0503ms.asp
 
 PEACE
 Scott


   - Original Message -
   Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may become
   known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.
___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/


Re: [Biofuel] Iraq Invasion - Age of Oil Scarcity

2005-04-05 Thread Rick Littrell



I think the thesis here is a bit of a reach.  At the time of the 
invasion the dollar was not in the shape it is now. In fact one reason 
for the decline is the cost of the war.   I still lean to the theory 
that Sadam was seen as a threat to the region and eventually would 
threaten US access to cheep oil by occupying his neighbors.  The Bush 
administration calculated that it would be cheaper to attack him rather 
than contain him.   It is a sobering thought that one of the geniuses 
that believed this is now head of the world bank.   As  far as the Euro 
vs the dollar,  The big energy companies don't care what they get paid 
in or by who.  At one point one of the companies that wants to drill in 
the Arctic admitted they'd probably sell the oil to Japan Rather than 
try to pipe it to the lower 48.


Rick

Scott wrote:


How many of us had an AHA moment when reading this article?

We now see the real reason for this illegal war [or at least one of the
reasons].

Saddam Hussein was about to be given a clean bill of health by the UN
inspection team beacuse he obviously didn't have WMD's.  He was then going
to open the spigots and start selling oil.  Not only was he going to sell
oil for Euros exacerbating the decline of the dollar, but that would also
have driven the global price of oil down.

Clearly, EXXON/Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, BP/Amoco et. al.  did not want the
price of oil to go down.

ExxonMobil Corporation reported the fourth quarter of 2004 as its highest
quarter ever...
http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/featurearticles/2005/MarketingStrategies/0503ms.asp


PEACE
Scott
- Original Message - 
 


Instead of inaugurating a new age of cheap oil, the Iraq war may become
   


known as the beginning of an era of scarcity.

___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/

 


___
Biofuel mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable):
http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/