To The Victor Go The Spoils

We all know that war is hell. It ruins lives by displacing families, creating refugees and causing death and destruction. The continuing war in Iraq is also ruining their civilization and their history. Iraq has a lot of things of value including oil; artifacts from an earlier era often called the cradle of civilization.

Since the war started in 2003, the looting of precious artifacts from museums and archeological sites is out of control. According to a story I read in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 10,000 artifacts have been hijacked out of Iraqi museums. Most of these antiquities are ancient : remnants of our earliest ancestors. And while we may be shocked and awed by the cultural rape of the country, we should also know that it has been going on for thousands of years. That said, it’s crimes like these today that really indicate how little war has changed anything about a country’s civility. Yet George W. Bush has believed all along that Democracy will prevail and stabilize Iraq and all it’s neighbours.

War changes very little. It ruins and disparages cultures, buries creativity and leaves bruises on our civil society. Yet Bush and his neocon gang want us to be “patient”. Clearly, people around the world are impatient and want an end to this war asap.

Regrettably, the looting continues, the death count rises and the artifacts of a civilized society are bought and sold on the black market. What an embarrassing record for the history books.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong

It Takes A Licking But Keeps On Ticking

So, the Doomsday Clock is 5 minutes to Midnight.

It was 7 minutes to Midnight in 2002. What's two minutes between disasters anyway? Are we closer to the end than we think? It all depends on who you talk to and the subjectivity of opinion. One person's security is another person's fearfulness. But The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists do point to some inconsistencies in the peace process and remind us that nuclear weapons are still the number one enemy of our civilization.

The no-nukes of the 1980s are silent today, but the weapons remain. As far as Global Warming and Climate Change is concerned, I have a little trouble including it in the mix that the Atomic Scientists say is a factor. They specifically state: " the perils of 27,000 nuclear weapons, 2000 of them ready to launch within minutes; and the destruction of human habitats from climate change, " is the reason they changed the clock to 5 minutes to Midnight.
 
The question is: which will come first? If the United States decides to invade Iran, then World War III will begin and once the nukes are launched it’s going to be over relatively quickly for all of us. If it's climate change, then the human race still has a chance to make amends and reduce the effects of pollution.
 
Someone once cursed "may you live in interesting times". And while I would heed the words of the Atomic Scientists, I can't help but feel that the human race has always been better than the fatalists, such as George Bush and Evangelists would suggest.

How interesting it is to consider the end of the world when we have so much to live for. Perhaps the clock is running a little fast. 

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
 
See: http://www.thebulletin.org/

George Wordsmith Bush

Last week's 20 minute speech by George W. Bush was so carefully worded, rehearsed and prepared, he looked like one of those robotic Presidents in Disneyland. Mechanical is a word that best describes his performance; stiff might be another one. But the mechanics of sending another 21,000 troops to Iraq sounded well greased with nary a squeak to be heard in West Point.

It's a pity that the move won't make much difference except in the body count. As far as the strategy is concerned, I'll leave that to the military pundits. In the end, it's the deeds that count, but for Bush it was all in the words.

Here's a rundown of the number of times he used the following keywords:

Al Qaeda = 9
America = 8
Civil War = 0 
Death = 1
Failure = 2
Freedom = 6
Iran = 6
Iraqis = 35+
Liberty = 3
Peace = 3
September 11 = 1
Syria = 2
Terror or terrorists = 12
War = 2 [but only in the context of the War on Terror] 

My nomination for best performance by a President of the United States? G.W. Bush.
Unfortunately, only one nomination in one category. Everybody else loses.

That's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Iran's Oily Dilemma

Whenever I read a story about oil, the Middle East and the United States, I can’t help but ask the question: Is it real or imagined?

Such is the case of a recent report out of John Hopkins University suggesting that Iran is headed for an “oil industry crisis”. Now how could this be? We’re talking about one of the leading oil producers in the world and this report by Roger Stern suggests that “if oil revenues decline the country could become unstable.” So the question really should be about the effectiveness of economic sanctions in light of Iran’s desire to go nuclear.

By the way, the United Nations Security Council voted in favour of sanctions on Iran’s importing of nuclear technology on December 23rd. The Stern report suggests these sanctions and the fact that Iran has failed to meet its OPEC quotas for the past 18 months, will put Iran into an economic squeeze. Consequently, says Stern, Iran could fall into political chaos.[how convenient]

So here’s the decision we have to make regarding the real or imagined threat and Iran’s oil supplies. Does Iran truly hold the fourth largest reserves or are they exaggerating the quantity in supply? If it’s the former, then the world is truly running out of sweet crude in the region. If it’s the latter, then Iran is playing a very dangerous political game with its fellow OPEC members.[who fashion the truth] But I for one, don’t believe they are going nuclear for their own energy needs. Clearly, they are moving forward on the notion that oil supply in the entire region has peaked and they are making the first in a series of moves to become an energy supplier.

But could this report from Stern also signal a plan for the United States to justify its actions over the next year? Could they be exaggerating the Iran crisis in order to scare off foreign investment and move in? Considering the aggressive and flawed behaviour of the Bush Gang since 2000, me thinks a plot is afoot.

That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.