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" Zepp " <zepp

Thu, 28 Jul 2005 08:03:27 -0700

[Zepps_News] #Herbert:Oil and Blood - New York Times

 

 

 

 

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/opinion/28herbert.html?hp>

 

Oil and Blood

By BOB HERBERT

Published: July 28, 2005

 

It is now generally understood that the U.S.-led war in Iraq has become

a debacle. Nevertheless, Iraqis are supposed to have their constitution

ratified and a permanent government elected by the end of the year. It's

a logical escape hatch for George W. Bush. He could declare victory, as

a senator once suggested to Lyndon Johnson in the early years of

Vietnam, and bring the troops home as quickly as possible.

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More Columns by Bob Herbert

Forum: Bob Herbert's Columns

 

His mantra would be: There's a government in place. We won. We're out of

there.

 

But don't count on it. The Bush administration has no plans to bring the

troops home from this misguided war, which has taken a fearful toll in

lives and injuries while at the same time weakening the military,

damaging the international reputation of the United States, serving as a

world-class recruiting tool for terrorist groups and blowing a hole the

size of Baghdad in Washington's budget.

 

A wiser leader would begin to cut some of these losses. But the whole

point of this war, it seems, was to establish a long-term military

presence in Iraq to ensure American domination of the Middle East and

its precious oil reserves, which have been described, the author Daniel

Yergin tells us, as " the greatest single prize in all history. "

 

You can run through all the wildly varying rationales for this war: the

weapons of mass destruction (that were never found), the need to remove

the unmitigated evil of Saddam (whom we had once cozied up to), the

connection to Al Qaeda (which was bogus), and, one of President Bush's

favorites, the need to fight the terrorists " over there " so we won't

have to fight them here at home.

 

All the rationales have to genuflect before " The Prize, " the title of

Mr. Yergin's Pulitzer-Prize-winning book.

 

It's the oil, stupid.

 

What has so often gotten lost in all the talk about terror and weapons

of mass destruction is the fact that for so many of the most influential

members of the Bush administration, the obsessive desire to invade Iraq

preceded the Sept. 11 attacks. It preceded the Bush administration. The

neoconservatives were beating the war drums on Iraq as far back as the

late 1990's.

 

Iraq was supposed to be a first step. Iran was also in the

neoconservatives' sights. The neocons envisaged U.S. control of the

region (and its oil), to be followed inevitably by the realization of

their ultimate dream, a global American empire. Of course it sounds like

madness, which is why we should have been paying closer attention from

the beginning.

 

The madness took a Dr. Strangelovian turn in the summer of 2002, before

the war with Iraq was launched. As The Washington Post first reported,

an influential Pentagon advisory board was given a briefing prepared by

a Rand Corporation analyst who said the U.S. should consider seizing the

oil fields and financial assets of Saudi Arabia if it did not stop its

support of terrorism.

 

Mercifully the briefing went nowhere. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

said it did not represent the " dominant opinion " within the

administration.

 

The point here is that the invasion of Iraq was part of a much larger,

long-term policy that had to do with the U.S. imposing its will,

militarily when necessary, throughout the Middle East and beyond. The

war has gone badly, and the viciousness of the Iraq insurgency has put

the torch to the idea of further pre-emptive adventures by the Bush

administration.

 

But dreams of empire die hard. American G.I.'s are dug into Iraq, and

the bases have been built for a long stay. The war may be going badly,

but the primary consideration is that there is still a tremendous amount

of oil at stake, the second-largest reserves on the planet. And neocon

fantasies aside, the global competition for the planet's finite oil

reserves intensifies by the hour.

 

Lyndon Johnson ignored the unsolicited advice of Senator George Aiken of

Vermont - to declare victory in Vietnam in 1966. The war continued for

nearly a decade. Many high-level government figures believe that U.S.

troops will be in Iraq for a minimum of 5 more years, and perhaps 10.

 

That should be understood by the people who think that the formation of

a permanent Iraqi government will lead to the withdrawal of American

troops. There is no real withdrawal plan. The fighting and the dying

will continue indefinitely.

 

E-mail: bobherb

--

 

 

The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making ten-thousand revolutions a

minute and man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. Religion is

the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him

the ride. --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

 

 

Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

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