<rant/>
The truth is this...
Forget about weapons of mass destruction or the war on terrorism...Bush and his cronies have manufactured a war to establish a US presence in the Middle east to protect oil reserves from coming under the control of other emerging powers. While this may sound like the old "No blood for oil" chant, I think it has a slightly different slant.
It is shortsighted to see the war in Iraq as merely putting money in the pockets of Bush's friends (although it certainly does that). There is a sense of long range thinking from the power-brokers in Washington. They are looking to secure US dominance in the coming decades. China, India, and other emerging industrial nations will prove to be a serious threat to our dominance mainly because we will all be competing for the same resources. While global coorporations may want to exploit these new markets to rake in the $$$, economies that grow too fast and big may disrupt our access to the resources we need to remain dominant.
Since oil will come to be in short supply in the coming decades as the billions in China and India become industrialized (if you think millions of SUVs in the US waste a lot of fuel, imagine billions in China and India!!), whoever controls the fuel supplies will have a definite advantage in dominating the world. While it is nice for coorporations now (re the billions the oil companies have made recently), it is essential for the government and army to have a secure fuel source inorder to protect economic interests in the future.
You may go back to wahtever you were doing...this rant is over for now...
</rant>
The truth is this...
Forget about weapons of mass destruction or the war on terrorism...Bush and his cronies have manufactured a war to establish a US presence in the Middle east to protect oil reserves from coming under the control of other emerging powers. While this may sound like the old "No blood for oil" chant, I think it has a slightly different slant.
It is shortsighted to see the war in Iraq as merely putting money in the pockets of Bush's friends (although it certainly does that). There is a sense of long range thinking from the power-brokers in Washington. They are looking to secure US dominance in the coming decades. China, India, and other emerging industrial nations will prove to be a serious threat to our dominance mainly because we will all be competing for the same resources. While global coorporations may want to exploit these new markets to rake in the $$$, economies that grow too fast and big may disrupt our access to the resources we need to remain dominant.
Since oil will come to be in short supply in the coming decades as the billions in China and India become industrialized (if you think millions of SUVs in the US waste a lot of fuel, imagine billions in China and India!!), whoever controls the fuel supplies will have a definite advantage in dominating the world. While it is nice for coorporations now (re the billions the oil companies have made recently), it is essential for the government and army to have a secure fuel source inorder to protect economic interests in the future.
You may go back to wahtever you were doing...this rant is over for now...
</rant>