i partially agree but we should go to war i believe (and one new york senator wanted a draft so if the people who decided if we go to war congress had kids in the military they would think twice before voting to go to war)(in congress only two of three people had kids in the military)
New slogan for national politics: 'It's the oil, stupid'
August 25, 2002
Editor, the News-Sentinel:
In his column of Aug. 16, Don Williams again shows himself to be an exceptional writer who is able to see the bigger picture that escapes so many of us. It is far past time that each and every one of us gave some thought to what is going on in Washington and within the confines of our foreign policy - and to think about the real reasons we stand on the brink of yet another war.
If I may paraphrase the internal slogan adopted by the first Clinton presidential campaign, "It's the oil, stupid!" In reading the news of what is about to occur, I find that, if I repeat this phrase to myself, things take on a new clarity.
It's the oil that has us so economically addicted that we are in the role of junkies who go down to the corner and buy what we feel we must have. This street corner entrepreneur gets his supply from a chain of middlemen that ultimately links to big oil, the suppliers (pushers) who control the flow of the dangerous substance.
It's the oil that led the Soviets to invade Afghanistan in the late '70s. And it was the oil that prompted the United States to foster and train the poisonous offshoot of Islam that produced the jihad that drove out the invaders. One component was the CIA-supported Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida which, like Frankenstein's monster, eventually turned on its creator and began blowing up U.S. embassies and similar targets.
It was the oil that led the powerful to look the other way when the Islamist Taliban imposed its brutal rule. Like the Soviets, companies like Unocal saw that the way to get to the vast oil fields of central Asia was by means of a pipeline route across Afghanistan. And the savage Taliban seemed able to bring stability to the region.
And, when the devout Taliban refused to take big oil's money, it was oil that prompted the U.S. to begin, according to The Washington Post in December of 2000, planning to take the country by force.
And it was oil that made the politicians look the other way as rich Saudis funneled money to the terrorists. And it was oil that made them avert their eyes as our other ally, Pakistan, did the same.
It is oil that leads the United States to support the brutal tactics of Israel's Ariel Sharon because the powerful need a stable platform in the region from which to operate and a surrogate to do their bidding.
As a result, our tax dollars flow to Israel at the rate of $10 million each day. In the last 30 years, we have spent on Israel four times what we spent to get to the moon.
Of every dollar of foreign aid, 80 cents goes to pay for the tanks and planes of Israel. And Forbes magazine lists Israeli lobbyists as the fourth most powerful special interest group in our Congress. It's the oil.
And, finally, when the day comes that you and a loved one exchange that last fleeting glimpse before one of you boards a plane to join a war on Iraq, the owner of the fifth largest oil supply on the planet, remember that it is not the flag that has separated you, not freedom nor the Constitution. It's the oil.
Harold Everett
Friendsville
KnoxNews
URL:
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/letters_to_edi...1344752,00.html
Copyright 2002, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved.
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im not sure on all the facts of this guy but whatever (especially israel and i dont want to believe that part is true)</span>