WILL IT EVER END?

It really is all about oil. This is where the neoconservative and neoliberal visions merge. After the hell fire that President Bush ignited by invading Iraq, causing many thousands of unnecessary deaths, now there is talk of bringing in big corporate oil companies, to get those valuable resources under control. Ah yes, the holy blessings of the free market (Barack Obama is a believer, he himself has said it) that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit (John McCain is also a believer, he himself has said it) of profit and efficiency.

If the truth be told, the United States government did not give a damn about what Saddam Hussein did to his subjects. During the cold war, the Central Intelligence Agency helped him to be a handy anti-communist tool. Not even when Iraq nationalized its oil supply did relations with Washington go sour. It should be remembered that Saddam Hussein defied the OPEC embargo of the 1970’s, and sold oil to the United States. No, that did not stop the love fest. When Iraq attacked Iran, the United States sided with Saddam, because the US government wanted some pay back for the hostage crisis.

No, what tore it , between Saddam Hussein and Washington, was when he demanded euros instead of dollars for the oil. This would never do. And besides, George Bush knew Saddam was a bad man, he tried to kill his daddy.

The current estimate is that the US spends $138 billion annually on protecting the oil supplies, a figure that continues to increase. Despite all the patriotic pandering about bringing democracy to the world, the control of oil is what all this slaughter is truly about. But should it be? The real question is: by what constitutional mandate is the government given the right to interfere with the sovereignty of other nations. Sovereign nations who may have bad governments (don’t we?) and problems, but are what they always are, their own.

That is why the presidential process has become such a disappointment. Neither McCain or Obama are willing to do the proper constitutional mandate of withdrawing our troops from foreign entanglements. Instead they argue over who knows the best way to fiddle. Both want to increase military spending. Both want to keep pushing around the world.

All of this partisan pagaent politics is a huge distraction from realizing this country’s constitutional crisis. Both Republicans and Democrats are evading this, hoping that fear, uncertainty, doubt, will win over the gullible before they realize that the country they live in, the country they have been told, all of their lives, that holds so much promise… that country no longer exists.

Neoliberalism like neoconservatism has delusions of empire. After the guns comes the carpetbaggers. Control of fossil fuels is a brutal industry, whether it is Nigeria or The Baltic States. For many, oil is the only business, and everything must be sacrificed: human rights, environment, the rule of law, in order for the flow to be continuous. If continuous war is a consequence, so be it. A disasterous policy to be sure, but for for those on top of this pyramid, who cares? There is still plenty of money to be made.

I recently found a picture of an Iraqi Muslim family celebrating Christmas. They are wearing their Santa hats and smiling, in front of their Christmas tree.
I look again at the photograph and ask myself: why, with all that is holy, would anyone want to blow these people up? That is of course the problem of this world. Politicians justify savagery and call it being strong.

SO WHAT?

The agony known as Iraq continues no matter what anybody does to try and stop it. The democrats for the most part, have proven to be the media conscious medusoids of legend. For their irresponsible part, they refuse to stop the funding of President Bush’s disaster, while the republicans, as least those in the loop, dismiss the idea of stopping the killing and maiming of their fellow Americans, with claims that the surge is working, and that defeat (i.e. withdrawal) is not an option. Just what exactly is winning, no one can explain.Nor does anybody seem to have an explanation for why suicide attacks occur on a continuous basis. According to The Independent of Great Britain, there have been well over a thousand suicide attacks in the five years of the American occupation. Many of these attacks are not by jihadist battle hardened fighters, but rather young people who for whatever reason, economic or religious, see this as a shortcut to paradise, or immortal fame, or both.


Such blood and sacrifice should not seem too strange, even to the most complacent American. After all, is not George W. Bush often extolling the virtues of ultimate sacrifice: for the good of the team, for the good of the cause? POTUS has no problem with sending thousands of people across the globe, fully armed to do battle with the evil ones. He is ready, he informs us, to smoke them out of their holes, dead or alive. Of course religious insanity has a part to play in this. Like Osama Bin Laden, George Bush believes he is performing God’s will on earth. Delusional righteousness becomes a danger to humankind that can not be exaggerated.


Deadeye Dick Cheney shocked many folks when he said: “So?” When asked about the seventy five percent of the population poll that thought that the Iraq war was not worth it. The arrogance was unsettling, but then, what does the Vice President fear? Judicial Watch can force Hillary Clinton to release her public logs as First Lady, but they could not get Cheney to release the minutes of the infamous Energy Task Force. The public be damned he says, and so it is. There is great difficulty in facing the fact that we have powerful myths that are, quite sadly, accepted to be reality. The commonly held notion that might makes right, helps to enable those supposedly in charge, to spend billions of dollars perpetrating violence. But there is difficulty, at least on a public relations front, when the enemy’s arsenal mainly consists of improvised explosive devices and of course, suicide bombers. While the other side, the good guys as it were, have everything from B-52 bombers to robotically guided drones. Perhaps that is why Mr. Cheney used an odd analogy to the Civil War, as an alibi to all this filth and carnage. With an unfounded belief in the invisible, even the most horrendous activity can be perceived in a noble light.


So the question then is: what is a rational peaceful person to do? It is rather obvious that solutions to these troubles will not be found on television. Jerry Mander once pointed out that the television industry thrives on conflict. It is not surprising, considering the enormous sums of money involved. War is portrayed as noble (never mind those Winter Soldier meetings). National Health Care is impossible (just look at the drug ads on the evening news). And conflict is celebrated, from Obama versus Clinton, to pay per view, ultimate extreme fighting.


It is indeed a corporate culture that demands that the ownership class knows what is best for us all. Democracy, as it is seen, is simply getting the yokels to vote every four years. It is no historical accident that the first people who were allowed to vote in this country, where slave owning white men with land. How strange it is to talk of exporting democracy, when right here, it is one continuous struggle.