Is the war in Iraq about oil? I agree with AHL, with the caveat that the war in Iraq is not exclusively about oil. There are a few other factors, such as the monetary interests of any manufacturing company with a US military contract and construction companies who have contracted to rebuild Iraq. Let us continue with AHL's diatribe...
If the largest oil reserves in the world were controlled by an anti-democracy, anti-west, anti-capitalism, ANTI-U.S. dictator, such a tyrant would have to power to cripple the U.S. economy,
That would be the reserves in the middle east, many of which already are controlled by a dictator whose sympathies are not with the United States. The middle east has been this way for years and years.
Because of the liberal policies of the 80's and 90's restricting domestic production, limiting the construction of nuclear plants, stifling refinery construction, and limiting domestic exploration, we are beholden to the powers that be in the middle east.
Now we're in the barn yard. I had high hopes when I started this reading this little exercise in honesty and integrity, but it seems my hopes are every bit as forlorn as yesterday's racing form. The United States imports almost all of its oil from Mexico. That would be the same Mexico that we're having the immigration problem with, the very same Mexico that continually sends us their tired, their hungry, their poor, their gang members, revolutionaries, mentally ill and violent criminals. This would be the Mexico that our federal government is reluctant to separate US citizens from by constructing a wall along the border. Believe it or not, this is the same Mexico that also sends us various recreational substances highly prized by desperately bored citizens everywhere in the US. And, while I'm at it, this is the very same Mexico that exports critically pregnant chicas who deliver their babies in US hospitals, then enroll the new citizens in US schools where we have to provide them with a teacher fluent in Spanish, because we wouldn't want to discriminate against little Pedro, would we? Which makes taxes go up like a fucking moon rocket on methamphetamine. Yeah, that Mexico.
As for limiting the construction of nuclear power plants, let me tell you something, AHL. I used to work at a nuclear power station, and the only way I'd ever let another nuclear power station be constructed is if the engineers on site and the politicians in office at the time of construction could be held criminally liable when the thing finally failed, and if, at their trial, I could pack the jury with Greenpeace activists, each and every one of whom was a constipated soccer mom with hemorrhoids who was currently experiencing severe menstrual cramps. Half of these jurors should be recently divorced soccer moms who caught the Old Man cheating and now suspect they have some weird new sexually transmitted disease. By the way, the Davis-Bessee Nuclear Power Station is a train wreck looking for a place to happen; That it hasn't is proof of Devine Intervention.
As to the domestic exploration, let's refer to that by its proper name, shall we? Lets fuck up the environment beyond any hope of repair so that we can cut oil imports by 4%, or at most, 5%. Canada won't mind, will they? Maybe someone like you, genius, ought to ask Canada because, strange as this may be, what we aren't getting from Mexico we are getting from the Canadians, less the wetbacks, pollution and Lord only knows what that sneaks across the border with Mexico. Check me on this, but the last time I looked we weren't having a major problem with Canadian citizens sneaking across the border at Niagara Falls to land a good job cleaning toilets at a Motel 6 in Detroit. Yet we are going to casually crap all over Canada's back yard with this "domestic exploration" bull shit.
Sadam was a valid threat to our national security
I'm willing to bet that Sadam couldn't even find the United States on a map labeled in Arabic, let alone threaten it. Sadam didn't do any more or less than anyone else in the middle east that wasn't Jewish. They listened to their Clerics, shouted imprecations and fired their AK 47's into the air on Yiddish high holidays. The terrorist organization Al Qaeda attacked the US, so the US sent troops to Afghanistan and dropped both jack boots on them, and if we'd confine our activities to Al Qaeda we would all be better off.
An so the diatribe continues: forced to succumb to the desires of Muslim extremists
Not true. This is making me tired, so I'm going to be brief. If the US did, in fact, invade Iraq in order to get the oil there, where is the oil? Because I don't see any of it. I see that fuel is over $3 per gallon, and if we are supposed to be looting the place, shouldn't we be seeing some kind of payoff by now? We aren't, and we won't. This "war" with Iraq was started by an inept president, one who will probably be remember as one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States, and that's saying something.
Oddly enough, I wouldn't oppose the war in Iraq if only I could see some benefit to the stupid business. I don't. All I see is a monumental debt that makes the Reagan years pale by comparison.
If the US government wants to end the country's dependency on oil, here's the first step:
"The single biggest step that Congress could take to reduce our oil dependency is to significantly increase the fuel economy standards of the cars and trucks that Americans buy and drive," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which works on environmental issues.
From:
Bill Wouldn't Wean U.S. Off Oil Imports, Analysts Say
By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; Page A01
The is an automobile being sold in India right now that runs on compressed air, but naturally the auto can't pass US safety standards. I suppose it has something to do with fuel.