Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Two very good OpEd's to read today.

I try not to be just some place to pick up links, but I read a couple good ones that I had to pass on.

On the subject of "Mission Accomplished", Greg Palast points out something we should have all figured in the first place. Considering that we all know the money involved and how much the big oil companies have been making the last few years.

What to do with Iraq's oil? States Greg:

The answer can be found in a 323-page plan for Iraq's oil secretly drafted by the State Department. Our team got a hold of a copy; how, doesn't matter. The key thing is what's inside this thick Bush diktat: a directive to Iraqis to maintain a state oil company that will "enhance its relationship with OPEC."

Dick and George didn't want more oil from Iraq, they wanted less. I know some of you, no matter what I write, insist that our President and his Veep are on the hunt for more crude so you can cheaply fill your family Hummer; that somehow, these two oil-patch babies are concerned that the price of gas in the USA is bumping up to $3 a gallon.

Not so, gentle souls. Three bucks a gallon in the States (and a quid a litre in Britain) means colossal profits for Big Oil, and that makes Dick's ticker go pitty-pat with joy. The top oily-gopolists, the five largest oil companies, pulled in $113 billion in profit in 2005 -- compared to a piddly $34 billion in 2002 before Operation Iraqi Liberation. In other words, it's been a good war for Big Oil.

It's so damn obvious, of course.

On to the next one.

Howard Zinn asks, How come so many people were so easily fooled?

Where he goes from this paragraph is amazing:

One is in the dimension of time, that is, an absence of historical perspective. The other is in the dimension of space, that is, an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. We are penned in by the arrogant idea that this country is the center of the universe, exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.

This is an excellent examination of our collevtive conscienceness in my opinion.

If God created man in his image, what DOES make people think that he has somehow chosen this particular landmass (along with Alaska and Hawaii) as the apex?

I remember we all had a laugh in school when we learned about the divine right of Kings.
What's the difference between King George and... King George W?

The thing is, I love my country. Like all of us do. But I don't think we have the right to take that any further than to get choked up during the national anthem on the Fourth of July.

2 comments:

Tom Harper said...

Both very good articles. I can't believe what a self-centered country we are. To an extent, everyone feels like their locality is "here," the "center." But Americans carry this way too far. As far as I know, most other countries have a less egocentric perspective; they're less ignorant about the rest of the world.

Our foreign policy is contaminated by this mindset of Us vs. those other people out there.

Mike V. said...

I love what we have and I am very proud of America (NOT the Gov, though) but we ARE to US centric.

And in a bassackwards way.
We oursource a shitload of labor to other countries, gladly, but also gladly bomb the shit out of brown people that don't love the Baby Jesus.

I truly believe that most people that support war so gladly really have no idea at all what that means.
They are so insulated by Fux News and CNN that they don't understand the horror.
And that is sad.