Re: Oil Law

True. "Simply" is overdone.

From my perspective, it is so terribly sad. This from one who supported the
US efforts in Vietnam back in university days, when such was not at all
popular and in retrospect wrong. I too was wrapped up in Camelot and
remember that bleak day in November. Through all of that, the United States
was a reason for it represented something good. From Kennedy to Johnson,
Nixon, Ford and all the way to Clinton. Sure, mistakes may have been made
but there was this ideal that kept coming back.

That was lost with Bush.

I do not think my view is that uncommon amongst Canadians or, as I
understand it, Europeans. Jane stated earlier that good relations with
other countries are not that important. Well, an opinion. Even a big bully
gets in tight spots and even little friends can help. But if you alienate
all the little friends, help is slower to come if at all. Reports suggest
that the negative view of the US is at an all time low after so many
positive feelings shortly after 9/11. That represents a terrible loss. It
is not merely an aggressive war against an admittedly nasty dictator. It is
the sweeping dismissal of any mild suggestions. The arrogance of this
fellow twice elected. Religion plays a part, for nowhere else is
fundamentalist religion part and parcel of policy decision in the Western
Word. The man who feels anointed by his god to do anything he damn well
wants. Words fail, they really do. From draping statues with cloth to
cover "naked bodies" all the way to Iraq and the disaster following Katrina.
Frankly, it seems totally insane. It was bad enough being a mouse in bed
with an elephant. Now the elephant is deranged.

We too have our issues. Canada elected a little Bush, thankfully with only
a minority government. As petty as Bush in some ways. Where press releases
used to say "The Government of Canada" they now must read "Canada's New
Government". Harper too is a "fundie", although he keeps it hidden. A
recent report pointed out that in the USA, candidates must declare their
faith; in Canada, Harper is obliged to hide it. The horrid thing is that no
one has yet arrived on the scene that has enough persuasion to take over in
the next election. As but one example, Vancouver started up a "safe
injection site" for the druggies, to cut down on street use and overdosing.
Staffed by nurses and other medical types. By all medical accounts, it
works well. But the "Christian" Conservatives will not renew its exemption
from certain federal laws, or so it now seems. Religion and madness over
practical good results. It sounds all too familiar.

Dear me. I must be tired. A liberal in a rednecked town is never fully at
ease. Most here simply ignore the Iraq War. I seem to be daily more
obsessed with the madness of it all.

Willow




"Crowfoot" <pagemail@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pagemail-DEC128.18434030082007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <ShIBi.4613$Pd4.1764@edtnps82>,
"Willow Arune" <pangarun@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

If indeed you did not go to war for oil, The United States was simply
very
stupid.

Well, that, too, although among some of the neocons at least I feel
certain that to some extent it was a stupidity born of laudable, if
deeply misguided, idealism.

I worry about that word "simply" (although yes, in the heat of argument
I've used it myself); as in, "simply" take over and make the Iraqis do as
we wish (after all, we won the war -- if you can call smashing a place to
pieces and then ruling by force over small portions of it that cannot
long be controlled "winning"). We are big, we are strong, we are above
all *right*, so we can "simply" do whatever we want -- we, the US as a
nation. So what we do or do not do tells at once what our aims were, a
straight line between motive and action with no awkward conditional
pressures applied.

I don't see a straight line. I do see that the neocon and Republican
penchant is for seeing straight lines in everything and pushing
complexities aside so they won't get in the way, no matter how real they
may be in the world of actual consequences. That's a large part of the
reason for the mess we're in today: think of Rumsfeld, not just ignoring
but jeering at military men who told him that the situation in Iraq was
not so simple that we could "simply" bash our way to Baghdad and then
have Iraq turn into a smoothly running democracy, all very quick and
efficient (read "cheap", low labor costs, Republican style).

Let me point out a couple of recent news items not directly related to
Iraq at all, but indicative of the error in thinking that "we" can do
whatever we want because we're the biggest and the best and the
richest.

1. Over the past months we have discovered that China had unloaded
some not only inferior but lethally flawed goods on the US. The Senate
resounded with threats to slap punitive tariffs on Chinese goods to
make those people *behave*, damn it! What happened next was that
the Chinese said that they were thinking of unloading their trillion
American dollars on the open market, which would, of course, drive
the value of the dollar down drastically. The American government
retaliated -- by hastily retracting the threat of tariffs. Anybody heard
anything more about those lead-painted toys and that tainted pet
food lately?

2. Now that European markets began to realize that they, too, badly
exposed to heavy losses due to having purchased huge amounts of bad
American mortgages, overseas financial networks and institutions
began calling for --- wait for it! -- some *oversight* powers over
Amercian financial dealings, which clearly had been insufficiently
monitored and regulated by the U S government. So far, no response
that I've seen; indeed, I found this story in the European press, not
the home product. So what happens to our financial growth if
overseas markets begin to decline to buy our financial offerings
because the goods are likely to be tainted (sorta like, uh, toys painted
with lead base paints - - - ?)? We gonna invade the EU and *make*
them buy our sleazeball, fast-but-fake-profit financial instruments?

By printing vast amounts of dollars in order to pay for an open-
ended, debilitating war of aggression that cannot be won, we have
debased our currency, our reputation, and our actual war-waging
power to the point where "If we wanna do it, we can" has become a
myth. Such simplistic thinking isn't just unrealistic any more; it's
ruinous.

Did I mention that my National Guard officer is also an
experienced investment counsellor who enjoys explaining why he
recommends what he does? And that he's been predicting the
mortgage debacle for several years now, and described it to me two
weeks ago as "a rolling crisis" in that adjustable rates on sub-primes
will be bumping higher in a *series* of upward triggers for the next
two years? NPR is just now, tonight, reporting admissions that our
mortgage meltdown and the attendant credit crunch appears to be
much deeper and more "persistent" than was at first admitted -- er,
thought.

I'm a writer and a reader; I live inside my head way too much of
the time. This guy is one of my windows on reality, and judging
by his performance so far in matters economic and military, I'll
take his opinion as sounder than most others, including pundits,
show-off columnists, Admin hacks, and high-toned theoreticians
any damn time.

Suzy


.

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