We talk a lot of trash around here. In fact, I'd say you could make the case that we're all pretty far up each other's assholes about how much we read the news and know about stuff. Mino called us out recently.
As of yet, I haven't had the time nor the inclination to offer up a rebuttal to his (extremely necessary) challenge. However, I now have the inclination, so I believe I'll take the time before lunch here to talk at length about the oil Iraq may be able to provide in the coming years.
I call the Bush Administration a lot of names. I have engaged many times in discussions that often lead up to the idea that my friends and I could have done a better job running this country. This line of reasoning is based on the assumption that the men in question are somehow so ridiculously inept that anyone could have achieved more success than these apparent mongoloids.
That line of thinking is as dangerous as it is ignorant. Let me state now, for the record, that these men are not stupid. While I'm sure many "yes-men" were instated strategically throughout the executive branch and beyond as per the orders of those on the inside, said yes-men were typically not in any position to advance any meaningful legislation of their own accord.
These men were puppets, and were it not for Hurricane Katrina, much of the horror they inflicted upon this country would still be hidden in the shadows, known only to single-minded activists who keep up with the number of acres of national park land we still protect (not a lot) or how many lobbyists there are in Washington D.C.(a lot).
The great illusion put forth in the fourth quarter of the Bush presidency has been a masterstroke of mindlessness. The way these men have bailed on the President has been likened to rats from a sinking ship. Once again, we all love the idea that these men have somehow failed. We like the thought that they are now backbiting at one another. We love to entertain the notion that they may soon be going down. This gives us all a sense of justice.
We also love to see our possibly-retarded President doing little shuffle step dance numbers on the way to his press conferences and the like. We love watching him tell the Pope "awesome speech" on the Daily Show. We love this because it once again reinforces our original ideas about the man. It allows us to be correct, which gives us a sense of pride and helps assuage our righteous anger.
But back to my first point.
From the Economist:
One significant exception [to the rule that many oil-producing nations are producing at capacity] is Iraq, which holds (at least) 10% of the world's proven reserves, but accounts for only 2.5% of total production. Iraq has the potential to furnish a long-term solution to the oil market's long-term supply problem, but it will need to improve dramatically on its recent performance before buyers of oil futures will be convinced that it can deliver.
We love to think of these men as idiotic buffoons. It shields us from the hidden truth that no one really wants to think or talk about.
These men are rich, powerful, intelligent, well-connected and evil as fuck. Every brilliant man in the world is given his chance - at some point or another, in some form or fashion - to join this class, and we must all make a decision at some point or another as to whether our allegiances stand with the men or with the supermen. We must decide whether we place more value on our personal comfort or the greater good.
These men have made their decision. Many of them made it long ago. Some of them only made it very recently (and a few of them are even coming to regret their decision). However, the fact remains that they chose their course of action very carefully. In doing so, they have killed more than one million people in an effort to control what may be the world's largest as-yet-mostly-untapped supply of oil.
We supported these men in this mission, and therefore we are all very quick to label them nitwits, fuckups and all manner of other put-downs. But the truth of matter is far more difficult to swallow. These men are swindlers of the highest order, and we allowed them to deceive us. They are profiteers, and we were eager to accept their narrative of easy victory if that indeed was what it took to preserve a quality of life we felt was being threatened.
They care very little for the world at large, but their own safety and comfort has always been amazingly important to them. In this way, these men are their very own microcosm of the modern America. It was so important that they save this world they had created for themselves - and they were so singularly-minded in their plans to do so - that they were willing to carry out any task to make it happen. They were willing to look beyond the lies they had to tell. They were willing to look beyond the careers they would have to destroy. They were even willing to look beyond every innocent man, woman and child they would have to kill (or maim, or leave brotherless, fatherless, motherless, sisterless - in short completely and totally alone) on their way to carrying out their most important objective.
If you think I'm speaking in hyperbole, or that I haven't a clue what I am talking about, I would direct you to read this article about former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's newly released memoirs, in which he casts a scathingly harsh spotlight upon the goings on inside the White House throughout the three years (03-06) he held such an unpopular yet privileged position.
I consider myself extremely well-informed. I had, up until this point assumed that these men went to war for oil, and that they only muffed the numbers. It was simple for me to believe that these men could screw up something easy like the amount of oil left to pump in Iraq, given the way a nearly constant string of mistakes has seemed to plague this administration from the beginning.
I see now that it was I who was mistaken. These men are monstrous capitalist swine. They had these numbers, surely long before I did. They made the decision to become the powerful elite, and therefore they have the insider information.
I am now forced to conclude that these men were not wrong. They were not men with dubious intentions and a lack of strategic ability. They were correct in their assumption that Iraq may hold the key to propping up this failing 20th century model of industry. They then took a look at all that would be involved in securing this region.
And they chose to sacrifice life by the millions in an effort to line their pockets with money in similar denominations.
May God have mercy on their mortal souls.
And may He also have mercy on ours, for while this is but the most recently visible blight on America's record of crimes against humanity gone unchecked by the citizenry, it is not remotely the first. It will not be the last, either.
I wonder at times if we are only carrying out a dance that must be done by all creation. I wonder if this just the way of things. The big fish eat the little ones. The strong rule the weak.
History tells me I am wrong to believe we can do any better than this.
Hope tells me history is full of shit.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
War for Oil Just Might Work
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7 responses:
Now that the specter of absolute defeat no longer hangs in front of American troops as it did just a year ago, and a Saigon rooftop evacuation style, chaotic withdrawal seems unlikely(even Obama asks for a 16 month timetable for withdrawal) it is easier for us to forget some of the sins of the present administration. I find myself sometimes wondering when I watch the news of reduced levels of violence and wonder if McCain is right.
As the years go by some of the future generations will even forgive the horrific lies told to Americans to incite them to war. Such is the nature of reactionary history writing. However we would do well to take a page from McCain's own play book and say that we will never surrender on our position on this false war. However expedient it might seem in the future to gloss over the facts of the invasion and reap the benefits at the gas pump or the vote bank - we must resist that temptation.
It is very tempting to view history as a book that is already written and ourselves as but pawns that reiterate age old precedents of the strong conquering the weak in a kind of Darwinian loop. Doing so helps us shed our moral responsibility and assuage our guilt at collaboration. If you study enough background material and learn enough about the conditions in Germany in the early 30s one might be able to say that the rise of demagogue like Hitler was inevitable. However we all know that it took a nation of individual people's assent, one by one, to bring him into power and to to allow him to enact his policies.
We cannot abdicate responsibility for the war even if it results in a total victory. Even now they are fighting a losing battle. They lost it when they went in on a platform of lies. Now they fight to save an honor that never existed and that will not spring to life suddenly if they win.
History should not be rewritten if they do. They know there is still a possibility to save their faces and to win the oil and strategic influence they invaded for. If this war lasts long enough and enough people forget how it strated and how badly it was mismanaged then the only thing some people will remember is the end result of economic gains for this country.
There are still people around who believe that the Vietnam war was necessary and that it stopped the domino effect. I am certain that there will be an ongoing effect for the better part of the next half century spent in recasting this war as a noble struggle for good against evil. Terrorist attacks against the west, that will almost certainly happen again considering the extent of anti western sentiment in the muslim world, will ensure that the war gets looked at in this way.
Also, since the reputation of large factions of the Republican party depend on it's critical re-evaluation, I predict that there will be a slew of books that cast Bush and Co. as righteous warriors who used whatever means they had at their disposal to fight an unrelenting enemy who could not be directly confronted in any other way. One lesson of history is that there will inevitably be a backlash to the backlash. If that doesn't work then the country will do it's best to act as if the whole mess never happened. I don't know which result makes me more sick.
you are dead on for the whole response, mino, until you suggest that this war will result in economic gains from america.
i'd be astonished if we didn't come out of this thing down any less than $1 trillion, when it's all said and done. the only possibility of america making money on this sinkhole is obscenely lucrative contracts for american companies - which seem less likely with a more transparent administration in '09 and consistent anti-american sentiment from most major iraqi factions.
Agreed. Even if they manage to get some oil from it, the longer this war goes on for, the lesser the chances that they will recoup any profits from it or make enough to offset the losses. However the sad part is that as long as the economy here eventually improves the people will be willing to forgive foreign excesses like this war. The one thing the american public will not tolerate more than anything else is the stench of a leaky corporation, which is what the invasion and the ship of state right now resembles.
When Bush, Cheney, Rove and Co started out they looked like wolves - efficient winners who projected an aura of invinsibility. Their present toothlessness is turning more public opinion against them than even the moral vacuousness of their program.
Have we forgiven LBJ for escalating Vietnam? I haven't.
People also remember LBJ for the civil rights and social welfare bills he passed while in office. I don't agree with most of the social welfare stuff, and I think that pretty much any president would have signed those civil rights bills, so I've never had a very positive opinion of LBJ. However, most people remember those bills, along with LBJ's actions on Vietnam.
What will people remember about the Bush administration, other than 9/11 and Iraq? No Child Left Behind? The death of the death tax? Tax cuts for the rich? Record national debt? The foreclosures crisis? The credit crisis? The 8-year "study" on global warming that conveniently ends when Bush leaves office?
There's nothing good to remember. Bush is going to go down as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
My great-grandfather is 106 years old. He has voted in every presidential election since 1924. In every single one of those elections, he voted Republican. The man voted for Herbert Hoover twice. But in 2004, he did not vote for George Bush (he won't say whom he did vote for; one must assume John Kerry). That's how bad George Bush is as a president.
LBJ is not forgiven for his transgressions. while the average american citizen remembers what they were taught in school or saw on the news (that he 'escalated' vietnam and launched that whole 'great society' idea), sharper minds still remember that the gulf of tonkin incident was a false flag mission meant to create the pretext for war. the people may forgive him, the historians don't.
no president really is ever entirely immune to scrutiny, even after the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia are put up. john adams signed the horribly xenophobic alien and sedition acts. lincoln suspended habeas corpus. truman made the decision to nuke both hiroshima and nagasaki even though the japanese were ready to surrender. even the ones who are basically revered by this country still have some people who fight their reputation bitterly (my great-grandfather allegedly cursed FDR's name until the day he died).
My entire extended family (your basic california moderates slash reagan democrats...middle huggers) voted for john kerry. every last one. even the evangelicals. what does that tell you? meanwhile, my grandmother, who is progressive enough to vote for mccain because "obama's an islam", said she's never seen a president so hated as bush, and justifiably so. i would be shocked if bush is not remembered as a warning to america and other democracies about leadership derived from nepotism, voter complacency, and 'this could never happen here' naivete.
however joe, you forgot one thing bush will be remembered for: the destruction of new orleans.
oh, and afghanistan.
and maybe iran.
and the vocabulary and speaking ability of a remedial high school senior.
and waterboarding.
and rampant cronyism.
and an obscenely opaque administration.
and rampant violation of interntaional law.
and rove's smear tactics.
and his grandpa funding the nazis.
shall i go on?
I just want to correct you on one point: the Japanese were not "ready to surrender" before Truman dropped the nukes. The U.S. government sent Japan a telegram three days before the Hiroshima bombing, demanding surrender at the threat of "total destruction." There was no response. The Japanese were still fighting ardently in the Ryukyus when that telegram was sent. General Douglas MacArthur -- a man known for his impeccably accurate predictions of battlefield casualties, predicted that one million people would die if the United States invaded mainland Japan. One million. And after the Little Boy bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the U.S. government gave Japan three days to surrender. When they failed to, the Fat Man bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
Other than that, I generally agree with your comment.
that's fair...needed a fact check on that one. you get my point though.
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