It's All About the Oil

Military Embracing Korea Model for Iraqnam

Sunday’s Washington Post front-pages a story titled “Military Envisions Longer Stay in Iraq.” The article states military officials are simultaneously planning for a drawdown and a “smaller, longer-term force that would remain in the country for years“:

This goal, drawn from recent interviews with more than 20 U.S. military officers and other officials here, including senior commanders, strategists and analysts, remains in the early planning stages. It is based on officials’ assessment that a sharp drawdown of troops is likely to begin by the middle of next year, with roughly two-thirds of the current force of 150,000 moving out by late 2008 or early 2009. The questions officials are grappling with are not whether the U.S. presence will be cut, but how quickly, to what level and to what purpose.

And anyone foolish enough to have believed Bush and Rumsfeld and the other war criminals about the illegal invasion of Iraqnam being about fighting "turists" needs their kneecaps beaten. Its always been about the oil and always will be about the oil.

In July 2004 I had a conversation with a high school classmate who, although married to a liberal, maintained the view that we "have to beat them in Iraq" without identifying "them." I told him that what we were doing in Iraq was about taking their oil. My friend disagreed saying that we were fighting for "freedom." I hope he has learned the error of his ways.

If you have an interest in what is going on, dash out to a bookstore and pick up the following book by biologist Jared Diamond called "Collapse." Its chilling to read about how earlier societies mauled each other over natural resources and how those maulings lead to the collapse of the societies. And if you dont believe that what we are doing in Iraq is all about stealing their natural resources, then you deserve what you get.