Seymour Hearsh Is At It Again.

[Dru]

See More Harsh Nuts

[Peter_Puget]

My new theory of why we invaded Iraq is this:

 

The powers that be thought Iraq was going to be real easy (ref: Pat Robertson's allegation that Bush stated to him that there would be zero American casualties). Once our glorious fighting force liberates Iraq, and Iraq becomes wonderful, then we really got all those other evil-doers in a bind, and quite intimidated. "What's next on the list Rummy?". That would have been real cool.

 

 

postscript: Unfortunately, hindsight has pricked this lovely balloon. These dunderheads refused to listen to any negative information and their fantasy projections blew up in OUR face. [Not THEIR face btw, because they were able to keep the majority of Americans living in a fantasy world through the elections].

 

You guys hear about those disparate numbers of trained Iraqi police forces? Bushies are saying over 100k while other sources are talking 4-6k? More fantasy-world crap.

 

"Rather be fighting over there than here"?? As empirical casualty count continues to grow, it gains weight over the hypothetical Saddam-still-in-power scenario.

 

Weigh these wonderful (hindsight) alternatives:

 

option 1:

Saddam slowly but surely ditches sanctions.

Probably supports international terrorists.

Possible successful terrorist attacks on US soil.

 

option 2

Known ~1500 American soldiers dead.

Sure ~10,000 American casualties.

Definite 400 billion $ drain on the US.

Very likely 100,000 Iraqi dead.

Possible successful terrorist attacks on US soil.

 

From another thread:

ChucK don’t be duped…see the groundwork being set right now …

 

Soon, there will be an elected Iraqi parliament. The elected parliament members will find themselves in the security accountability hotseat very quickly. There will be pressure for *Iraqi* action against any perceived Syrian involvement in the insurgency. The US will not let that action happen without its help. Whether US would prefer to act in Syria or not Iraq will “force” the issue….

 

 

..and then there is Iran....

 

GWB=LBJ?

 

Problems in Iraq in fact serve the greater purpose.....phase on:get rid of the evil dictator. phase two: fight for the nascent democracy ( the twist here is we are playing the french role a la Lafayette)

 

Who is to say the plan isn't going according to schedule?

Edited January 29, 2005 by Peter_Puget

[Dave_Schuldt]

No one intelligent really thinks that Iraq was behind the attack on America. But Iraq is a conveniently attainable foothold in taking the attack back to Al Queda. War has been declared, and you should be grateful to have it off your homeland.

 

That is the kind of thinking that will create more terrorists.

Osama is in AFGANISTAN not Iraq.

[Bogen]

For a really nice alternative POV (alternative to my rant, that is) I found this essay on the economic reasons behind the American invasion of Iraq.

Summary

Although completely unreported by the U.S. media and government, the answer to the Iraq enigma is simple yet shocking -- it is in large part an oil currency war. One of the core reasons for this upcoming war is this administration's goal of preventing further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum towards the euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd largest proven oil reserves. The second coalescing factor that is driving the Iraq war is the quiet acknowledgement by respected oil geologists and possibly this administration is the impending phenomenon known as Global "Peak Oil." This is projected to occur around 2010, with Iraq and Saudi Arabia being the final two nations to reach peak oil production. The issue of Peak Oil has been added to the scope of this essay, along with the macroeconomics of `petrodollar recycling' and the unpublicized but genuine challenge to U.S. dollar hegemony from the euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. The author advocates graduated reform of the global monetary system including a dollar/euro currency `trading band' with reserve status parity, a dual OPEC oil transaction standard, and multilateral treaties via the UN regarding energy reform. Such reforms could potentially reduce future oil currency and oil warfare. The essay ends with a reflection and critique of current US economic and foreign policies. What happens in the 2004 US elections will have a large impact on the 21st century.

[cj001f]

Soon, there will be an elected Iraqi parliament. The elected parliament members will find themselves in the security accountability hotseat very quickly. There will be pressure for *Iraqi* action against any perceived Syrian involvement in the insurgency. The US will not let that action happen without its help. Whether US would prefer to act in Syria or not Iraq will “force” the issue…

That's assuming

1) A competent Iraqi force with surplus resources - everyone seems to have their hands full providing security

2) Iraqis view their government as legitimate (If I found out there were a half dozen polling places in the occupying nation for those who fled to vote I wouldn't trust the government)

[JayB]

If this is a variation on the oil for cash theme, as I've pointed out many times on this site - you have to explain why we left Iraq's oil fields in Husseins hands in '91 after handing him his ass on the battle field, and come up with some figures that demonstrate that the total profit the the fields in Iraq would yield given a target price for oil was equal to or greater than the initial estimates for the costs of the invasion and reconstruction, then come up with some factual evidence to back up the claim that this was in fact the administration's objective. With all of the high level defectors from the administration around - like Richard Clark - it would be quite surprising if none of them spilled the beans on this one.

[JayB]

And - the stop-oil-from-being-traded-in-Euros thing has got to be one of the more ludicrous claims I have yet to come across. Almost self parody/life-imitates-the-onion caliber material by whoever produced that essay.

 

If the China and Japan were to stop buying T-Bills all of a sudden that would have an impact on the currency that would exceed that generated by this oil business by at least a couple orders of magnitude.

[Bogen]

Well, I had discounted that essayist on spelling and grammar alone, but the deep economics were out of my league and left me wondering.

[joel20]

There's another guy wanting to stir the god damned pot again.

 

Why did we invade? Because we where in the mood to pick a fight.

 

What was the justification? Saddam was a bad man who in fact was allowing terrorists to use his country to train in(proof had been shown a while ago)in captured video, documents, and finding the abandoned camps themselves.

 

Did he have weapons of mass destruction? All that we know is that guy had used them before. That he had buried them in the first war, we where blowing them up and now those guys have nerve damage from the exposure(yeah our guys). We know that he would go to anny length to hide his weapons from us(the fucker burried his own fighter jets in the desert).

 

Have we been gassed yet? Yes, in fact there have been isolated incidents where we found bombs with nerve agents in them and soldiers nearly died because of them.

 

100,000 Iraqi dead? That very modest considering the fact that we can't even find all of them who's body parts are scattered and or burried in the process of us making craters.

 

Why are we here? So that the bush twins can die insanely rich and powerful.

 

Are we winning? Well the terrorists aren't and the Iraqis are making quite a pretty penny off of us. All and all America is losing and so are the terrorists. Who wins? The Iraqi people and The Bush twins(my god they're hot).

 

Are we finding and or killing terrorists? Everyday

Are there some really bad people in the wold that need to die? definitely

Does Iraq have more than their fair share per capita? Yes, this place is a shithole.

Are we creating more terrorists? Yes, but we are killing them much faster. Besides that's the only fun part about Iraq anyway.

Do I hate my life? yes

 

Is Seymour Hearsh likely to be a total douchebag who lives off of other's chaotic and misfortuned lives?

Answer: Did Michael Moore make a profit off of Columbine and the World Trade Center being taken out? Does Michael Moore make profit off of making fun of stupid people like the president and preying on impressionable minds with his books and movies like college students and soldiers families? Of course.

Would anyone else like to see a video making fun of fat, sloppy, over opinionated people like him. I got an idea. Why don't Seymour Hearsh and Michael Moore put their balls or fat asses on the line and do something about what they see wrong with the world? I bet you the only thing that's holding Mike and Seymour back is the fact that they can't part with their fridges and followers.

 

Last but not least? 400 billion dollars? Who needs 400 billion dollars? Answer: Michael Moores' stomach

 

But really this guy wants to spend 400 billion dollars and the lives of taxpayers (that's all that we are to these bastards anyway) on some bullshit. All that I really want is to finish school, removal of the lower 4 snake river dams, have the commercial salmon fishery take a break for a few years, and for us to stop heating up the world.

 

All that I want in life is some goddamned booze, some goddamned women, some goddamned salmon, some goddamned woods, some goddamned clean water, some goddamned guns, some goddamned big assed rocks, and some goddamned snow and ice.

Oh, and I almost for get some goddamned out of the army ,and some goddamned earth swallowing Iraq whole, people and all.

 

Now is that so much to ask? I mean we spent all of that time, money, and effort getting rid of good people and guys who wanted to live a good life like the native americans. All because of our need for excess, our greed. Now just over a century later we spend an assload of money, time, and effort to save help what may possibly be the worst people currently existing in the world. I mean a nation of total shitbags.

 

The longer I stay in Iraq the more I get pissed off. We kill salmon and the destroy the rest of the world all because people can't seem to live without their lights, blowdryers, microwaves, goddamned TVs that forcefeed you garbage, goddamned Xboxes and Playstations.

 

In closing I hate fat people, I hate people who throw away garbage, I hate politicians, I hate army people, I hate army vehicles, and most of all I hate the most heavily worshipped god in the world. The TV

[joel20]

and of course i always find someway to look stupid.

"I hate people who throw away garbage"

 

I meant that I hate people who throw away food.

 

I don't really hate fat people. I hate the fat that people carry around with them everywhere they go.

[joel20]

Oh, and I also want to be able to smoke some weed and enjoy it. Who can enjoy a good bowl when they have to worry about persecution? I can't, and so I can't wait until the end of my next Iraq deployment when I will probably be able to part ways with the army. Then again they are getting in the habit of keeping people in past years after their ETS dates.

[joel20]

Then again what asshole would want to pick a fight with a guy like this?

[catbirdseat]

I sure hope the election goes off as well as possible. It's damn important. The Shiites will get elected. We'll train them and get out and they will take care of killing off the Sunni terrorists. Either that, or the Sunnis will finally see the futility of fighting the majority and settle down.

[Bogen]

Estimates say 90% of muslims in the middle east are Sunni. This won't go away easily.