Letters to the Editor
Garry Owen
Published Letters: 2821 Editor's Choice: 151
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It's the oil, stupid
[Read the article: Is the Iraq war worth the cost?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Two evenings ago a one-minute commercial was aired during CNN's "Situation Room." Maybe you saw it.
At first, I re-checked the channel to make sure I had not flipped over to The Comedy Channel and was watching a Jon Stewart or Saturday Night Live spoof.
"Have you seen the Other Iraq?" the unctuous voiceover whispered.
"It's spectacular."
"It's peaceful."
"Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan. Where democracy has been practiced for over a decade. It's not a dream. It's the other Iraq."
Had I really heard this right? Kurdistan??? Huh? Well OK, to be fair, the voice did say Iraqi Kurdistan. But there is no official country called Kurdistan. There are "Kurdish-inhabited areas in Iraq, in Turkey, in Iran and in Syria. Kurdistan only really exists in the minds of the Kurdish separatists who have longed for their own country for centuries. In their minds, they never were part of Iraq. It was forced upon them. The Kurds would love nothing more than to cut loose from the coalition government in Baghdad and tell the Shiia and the Sunni to go to hell.
Welcome to "The Other Iraq." I like that. It's like "Pork, the other white meat."
The smooth voice over continued with a pitch to come on over, there's no war here, you can drink the water, plenty of free parking and humble folks without temptations etc.
"The people of Iraqi-Kurdistan invite you to discover their peaceful region, a place that has practiced democracy for over a decade, a place where the universities, markets, cafes and fair grounds buzz with progress and prosperity and where the people are already sowing the
seeds of a brighter future."
Oh, but they left out something important, I think.
They just happen to be sitting on top of the world's sixth largest oil field. About 45 billion barrels of oil according to the CIA Factbook.
Furthermore, the Kurdish oil pipelines are up and running! They are exporting oil and gas to western Europe through Turkey to the Black Sea.
So why doesn't the US just brown-nose the Kurds and let them have autonomy, trade with them for oil, make them rich? Pretty much the same reason G.H.W. Bush betrayed them after Gulf War I. Turkey.
Turkey has had a century or more of trouble with Kurdish separatists and the last thing they need is for Kurds to get their shit together and become rich enough to start a separatist movement there. Iran and Syria, oddly enough, are just as afraid of a Kurdish insurgency as Turkey is.
But it's more than the Neocon's desperate reach to get Iraqi oil flowing toward America. No. The Neocon PNAC agenda goes one step beyond: "If we can't have the oil, the goddamned Chinese ain't gonna get it either."
From the perspective of the Cheney-type Neocons, it's better to keep the whole damn place in chaos and leave the oil in the ground, until such time as we can eventually prevail, than it would be to let the Iraqis sell the stuff to the Chinese, the Japanese, or even India.
When you start talking about the Middle East, you're really talking about oil, first last and always.
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After this, nobody gets to dis Bourdain for anything
[Read the article: Watching Beirut die]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is first class journalism.
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Prothero, you're full of shit
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You yourself write that there's a Hezbollah informant on every street corner. You claim you can't see them. You can't see them because you don't want to see them. In a way, you are similar to a lot of Lebanese who don't want to see them either. They've rationalized the presence of these thugs because Hezbollah poses as the protectors and benifactors of the average Lebanese. It's bullshit. It's like when the Mafia used to patrol the streets of Brooklyn and hand out a little charity to the poor to make themselves look good. But it all comes with a price.
Have no fear Prothero, the Israelis can't dislodge Hezbollah. Only the Lebanese people, when they finally find their balls, can kick these sons of bitches out.
If the Lebanese people don't like artillery and air strikes, they need to go out into the street with small arms, pistols, rifles, and shotguns, and when ever they encounter a Hezbollah thug, they need to start shooting. I know it's easy to say that from here. But I've got some personal experience with guerrilla warfare and I know for a fact that only the local civilian population can put an end to this.
You Prothero, wouldn't know a Hezby if he walked up and gave you a shave. But every neighborhood knows who belongs there and who doesn't. When guys start showing up with a Toyota with some rockets in the back, it's time for the local civilians to make some hard choices.
It may be a scary thing for a bunch of ordinary people to grab their pistols and rifles and start shooting. But the alternative is far worse. If the guerrillas set up in their street and get a couple of Katyushas airborne, it will only be a matter of minutes before Israel's 155 batteries are putting a dozen H.E.s smack in the middle of the neighborhood.
It's like this: If civilians in a neighborhood start making them bleed when they show up, then the morons will pack up and go somewhere less dangerous. If all the neighborhoods get these guys on the run, then Israel will quickly run out of targets and the shelling will stop.
But the Lebanese for some reason would rather just ignore the shadowy thugs who rule their streets. Then when it's over, like you, they blame Israel for the destruction. When civilians finally get pissed off, they are more powerful than any guerrilla force.
It's time for the Lebanese people to get pissed off and get Hezbollah the hell out of their beautiful country once and for all. They threw out Syria, now it's time to finish the job.