Iraq: An Unbridled Success
I wish Blair would shut the fuck up so I could write about something else, but no.
He was with Bush, I think it was yesterday I don't know. They did their standing shoulder to shoulder thing and admitted that "not everything had turned out as we'd wanted" in Iraq. Then Bush invited Blair to dinner and they walked off hand in hand, how sweet. Well, not hand in hand, I made that bit up. Of course there's the opinion that perhaps instead of owning up to "mistakes" in Iraq they should have admitted that the entire thing was one gigantic, blood-drenched mistake. But if they said that, they would still be lying.
It was a mistake only if you view the war on terror as a war against terrorists. We've all heard the Mi6 and CIA reports that Iraq has increased the terror threat, confirming something that anyone with a functioning brain would realise. We know its played into the hands of Iran who are currently providing covert support to the Shia extremists in Southern Iraq. We know there was no WMD, and, thanks to the testimony of the UN weapons inspectors and the downing street memos among other things, we know that Bush and Blair knew there was no WMD and no link between Saddam and Al Quaida.
What the war has done is provide enormous profits for US defence companies with links to the Bush administration. And the continuing chaos in Iraq is making sure that they can continue to make a mint supplying the US forces, building bases and cheating the US treasury and the Iraqi people out of reconstruction funds. But that's still not the biggest success of the Iraq project.
The biggest success is that it prevented Iraq from trading its oil in euros which would have severely devalued the dollar. Iraqi oil exports would have threatened the dominance of the OPEC cartel who would also in all probability have switched to trading in euros too if that was the way the financial wind was blowing. It would have been a full blown disaster for the US economy. The war has all but halted Iraqi oil exports; America's gift to OPEC, who might just be grateful enough to carry on trading in dollars if, say, Iran carries out its plan to euro-ize its exports and America finds that it can't afford to invade them as well.
I'd prefer it if Bush and Blair came out and admitted that the war has been an immense success and then tell us all why. But then they'd have to tell us that they murdered hundreds of thousands of people and condemned a nation to civil war for the sake of economics. Which might give us the impression that they're not very nice people.
He was with Bush, I think it was yesterday I don't know. They did their standing shoulder to shoulder thing and admitted that "not everything had turned out as we'd wanted" in Iraq. Then Bush invited Blair to dinner and they walked off hand in hand, how sweet. Well, not hand in hand, I made that bit up. Of course there's the opinion that perhaps instead of owning up to "mistakes" in Iraq they should have admitted that the entire thing was one gigantic, blood-drenched mistake. But if they said that, they would still be lying.
It was a mistake only if you view the war on terror as a war against terrorists. We've all heard the Mi6 and CIA reports that Iraq has increased the terror threat, confirming something that anyone with a functioning brain would realise. We know its played into the hands of Iran who are currently providing covert support to the Shia extremists in Southern Iraq. We know there was no WMD, and, thanks to the testimony of the UN weapons inspectors and the downing street memos among other things, we know that Bush and Blair knew there was no WMD and no link between Saddam and Al Quaida.
What the war has done is provide enormous profits for US defence companies with links to the Bush administration. And the continuing chaos in Iraq is making sure that they can continue to make a mint supplying the US forces, building bases and cheating the US treasury and the Iraqi people out of reconstruction funds. But that's still not the biggest success of the Iraq project.
The biggest success is that it prevented Iraq from trading its oil in euros which would have severely devalued the dollar. Iraqi oil exports would have threatened the dominance of the OPEC cartel who would also in all probability have switched to trading in euros too if that was the way the financial wind was blowing. It would have been a full blown disaster for the US economy. The war has all but halted Iraqi oil exports; America's gift to OPEC, who might just be grateful enough to carry on trading in dollars if, say, Iran carries out its plan to euro-ize its exports and America finds that it can't afford to invade them as well.
I'd prefer it if Bush and Blair came out and admitted that the war has been an immense success and then tell us all why. But then they'd have to tell us that they murdered hundreds of thousands of people and condemned a nation to civil war for the sake of economics. Which might give us the impression that they're not very nice people.
posted by Ben at 11:58 pm
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