Did Somebody Say "Oil"?
There is a bit of a row brewing in Australia. It seems the Australian Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, has had the bad taste to admit that his country's involvement in the Iraq war is to secure oil supplies.
"The Middle East itself not only Iraq is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world, and Australians ... need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawal from Iraq," Dr Nelson said.
"We need to ensure, notwithstanding the significant natural resources that our country has been blessed with, that we are able to access the energy requirements in our region and throughout the world," he said.
So it wasn't about WMD then. Prime Minister John Howard is staying firmly on message and denying that oil had anything to do with the illegal invasion.
"I had a look at what Brendan said and I think in fairness to him he didn't quite say that," Mr Howard said on Macquarie Radio.
"I haven't said in my speech that the reason we went to Iraq is oil or the reason we're staying there is oil.
"We are not there because of oil and we didn't go there because of oil. We don't remain there because of oil. Oil is not the reason."
Got that? Nothing at all to do with oil. So what was it all about then? Well Dubya is now linking it to the American War of Independence, in some twisted way, to mark the July 4 anniversary.
President Bush equated the war in Iraq on Wednesday with the U.S. war for independence. Like those revolutionaries who "dropped their pitchforks and picked up their muskets to fight for liberty," Bush said U.S. soldiers were fighting "a new and unprecedented war" to protect U.S. freedom.
This is just bizarre even for Bush. If anything is reminiscent of the War of Independence it's the insurgency - throwing out an imperial power and establishing self-determination as indeed General Sir Michael Rose has suggested. And Bush couldn't resist another attempt at linking his war with September 11 2001.
"a major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day."
Anyway, nothing at all to do with oil. So one has to wonder then why Bush would phone his puppet, Nouri al-Maliki to thank him personally for approving the draft oil law in Iraq.
Al-Maliki said Tuesday his cabinet had unanimously approved a draft of the law, raising hopes that major progress had been made. U.S. President George W. Bush phoned the prime minister to thank him.
This is, of course, the oil law which, when passed, will mean huge profits for American petro-chemical companies, notably, Exxon Mobile and Chevron. The problem however, is that Al-Maliki has a different interpretation of the word "unanimously" and is trying to push this law through without proper consultation with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said it had not seen nor approved the draft.
"We hope the cabinet is not approving a text with which the KRG disagrees because this would violate the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan region," the KRG said in a statement.
The Sunni politicians are unhappy with this law as well and are boycotting the parliament. Even Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has rejected the draft. The delay in passing the law is causing headaches for General David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq who, along with Ambassador Ryan Crocker, has to present a report to Washington in September to show some sort of progress. It's likely to be a very short report.
Gotta love that Bush - "a
Gotta love that Bush -
"a major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day."
Uh huh. This is without doubt a top class, A1, diamond-encrusted, chrome-plated, heehaw-it-through-a-megaphone LIE. The Al-Qaida element of the Iraqi resistance represents a somewhat small fraction of the wide range of groups actively resisting the occupation. `A major enemy` - yeah, and Twinkies will help ya lose weight!
British General Sir Michael
British General Sir Michael Rose has already compared the Iraqi insurgency with the American revolt:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6618075.stm
"This is just bizarre even
"This is just bizarre even for Bush. If anything is reminiscent of the war of independence it's the insurgency - throwing out an imperial power and establishing self-determination."
General Sir Michael Rose has made this observation:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6618075.stm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Michael_Rose
Thanks for reminding me
Thanks for reminding me about General Sir Michael Rose amk, that little detail had slipped my mind. I'll add it to the post.
Cheers.
WRT American Independence, I
WRT American Independence, I wonder if Bush remembers (if he ever knew) that the French played a decisive part? Time to remind him about the Treaty of Paris, perhaps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_%281783%29
"a major enemy in Iraq is
"a major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day."
So that'll be the US government, then... :-)
So the Iraq war is like the
So the Iraq war is like the American War of Independence? Crap, we're fighting for the wrong side then!