All about Oil and then Some

The lies of the Bush administration about the bombing, invasion, and occupation of Iraq have now been exposed, even in the corporate-owned media.

As many of us concluded, "it was all about oil." But the reasons for the attack on Iraq are more complex than that. Here are some of the most important ones:

1. Globally, the demand for oil will exceed supply in 3-13 years according to many experts. Since oil is the lifeblood of our industrial society, this will cause major economic problems that will ripple throughout other sectors of our society and the world economy. Iraq has the second largest reserves of oil in the world.

2. The European Union's new currency, the euro, now provides an alternative to the US dollar for global capital investment. Iraq demanded and received its oil-forvfood money in euros. Iran, Indonesia, and other countries are considering or have switched to euros. The US economy has a huge trade imbalance and massive debt; it is dependent on foreign investment to prop up the dollar. If enough countries and investors switch to the euro, it will bankrupt the US economy.

3. The US economy is largely based on building weapons for the military-industrial complex. Wars are necessary for testing, promotion, and sales of weaponry. They are also necessary in order to justify the use of hundreds of billons of our tax dollars for corporate welfare, which is then funneled into the military-industrial complex under the banner of the "war on terror."

4. Control of Iraq gives US big business and their governing cohorts another forward base to insure Russia and China remain subordinate to US business interests. An Iraqi forward base also constrains the Saudi Arabian people from rebelling against their puppet monarchy thus insuring Saudi Arabian oil is traded in US dollars and at a price amenable to the big oil corporations.

Readers can check out www.rupe-india.org or read "The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies," by Richard Heinberg for more information.

Dave Ross, Arcata, CA

Re: Patriotic Hate Mail

The so-called hate mail Kirsten Anderberg received seemed to me to be a very funny send up of the "patriots" she thinks wrote it. Perhaps it was contrived by some local teens, convulsed, as I was, at the vision of the local racist fathers ensconced in lawn chairs, six packs at hand, solemnly watching their wives and daughters parade around the block for an hour in the nude. A sense of humor is a terrible thing to lose.

Audrey Lyle, via e-mail

ETS!,

It appears Kirsten Anderberg might well do with one of the six packs in his/her posting. When you've become so hypersensitive and kneejerk as to not be able to get a laugh out of an obvious joke and rather scream and rant about evil right wingers...perhaps its time to check into a prozac description.

If she/he would consider the effect of the "call to arms"...you'd have millions of American women walking around our neighborhoods nude handing out six packs...Perhaps I'm not enough of a prude...or perhaps I'm just too male to be "psychosocially correctly adjusted" but imho that would be a good thing.

Charles, via e-mail

KA responds: You are right. Perhaps with enough alcohol and Prozac in my system, I could happily prance around naked on my lawn, waving six-packs off my hip, enhancing your fantasy world of complacent, drunk, drugged, naked women. But if I was living in a world where I was expected to prance naked and drugged on my lawn for American white men's amusement, I would probably be shooting something else from my hips, not beers.