I want to sieze an opportunity here to write, because its what I do, its what I enjoy, its stress relief from my business life, my personal life. (albeit, I’ll fish all day tomorrow on our Independence Day).
My office is at my home in Carbondale, downstairs, a place vacated by my wife/ex-wife for the next five days as she and my child head to the farm in Kansas to be with grandma. I’m not sure what I want to write about… (so I’ll pause here for a few…)
Okay, so our great country (depending on who is describing it) is at a crossroads. We are stuck in a war in Iraq, a.k.a. — also now known as a policia actione’ mission. The problem here is that we created this action, this mission. It is not a war anymore, it is a cause faction. It never was truly a war. It was a cause. Gawd.. just download and read “The Project for The New American Century.”
If anything, it was a war of attrition, a war of opportunity.–It was a political cause action.
I was in Iraq, after Gulf War I, when the media influenced world led us to believe that everything in that region was Kosher. It was not. We were conducting operations there for ten years after the initial Gulf War. I can’t allude to or describe what we did or where, but I can say, honestly, that we were there.
I, as a student, as an observer, as an idealistic philosopher… well, indeed, observed. My job, as I was trained to do, was to observe and report, and make decisions fast and call those decisions in, fast. What I didn’t know and digest then, which I’ve done since, is to know that the ”conflict”… in essence, never really ended…. it was just taking a “Time-Out.”
I think Clinton allowed for a perfect repositioning, restrategizing, re-planning period. Sure, Clinton ordered bombings, but they were coded as enforcement/disciplainary bombings, discipline for Saddamm pushing the limits.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…
Hussein couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t go anywhere. His northern third and his southern third areas were strickly enforced by us and others. He was economically embargoed. All his neighbors hated him. Perhaps there is a faction of Syria that may have welcomed him, but then… is that where all the WMD’s went? I doubt it. But if so, then, let us invade Syria, for crying out loud!
So, we invade a country and cause mass anniliation and suffering for what? (I’ll not go there this time…)
What would happen if we invaded a country such as Saudi Arabia or Syria? Think about that. Well, truth is… it ain’t happening! That is a mute point worth investigating. And I think those who are active on this site know why.
I will continue saying it until I’m blue in the face. The time for real, effective, and honest LEADERSHIP, is now….
’Nough for now… bedtime… — B. Jon Traylor…
[I was in Iraq, after Gulf War I, when the media influenced world led us to believe that everything in that region was Kosher. It was not. We were conducting operations there for ten years after the initial Gulf War. I can't allude to or describe what we did or where, but I can say, honestly, that we were there.]
When I was in Iraq in January 2003 (two months before the U.S. invasion) I visited the southern city of Basrah. While walking on the street one afternoon, air raid sirens went off. Alarmed, I asked an Iraqi bystander what was going on. He told me that it was a common occurrence, signifying U.S. military jets flying over the city. They were patrolling the southern “no-fly zone,” established by the U.S. after Gulf War 1. Iraqi aircraft were not allowed to fly in this area or its corresponding zone in the north. The U.S. air patrols were allegedly protecting Iraqi citizens from Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately more often, the jets targeted Iraqi civilian areas, which is why the air raid sirens warned of their presence. I saw houses reduced to rubble from U.S. missile attacks.
In Basrah I visited a water treatment plant that was barely functioning because the parts and chemicals they needed were prohibited by the economic sanctions. Same with the electrical power plants. We experienced several required black-out periods so that energy could be reserved for times of greatest need.
I also visited a hospital and spoke with a woman doctor there who has been treating Iraqis for Depleted Uranium sickness; a multitude of cancers caused by munitions used in Gulf War 1. Girls as young as eight years old were developing uterine cancer, something unheard of before Gulf War 1 and unknown anywhere else in the world. She showed me a photo album filled with hundreds of pictures of deformities in Iraqi babies born since the war. She said this was only a small sample of the thousands of occurrences. There are also an abnormal amount of deformities among the babies born to Gulf War soldiers.
I visited three hospitals while in Iraq and all were in terrible shape. Ammonia was one of the sanction prohibited chemicals, so sanitation was a problem. Many medications and diagnostic machinery were also prohibited and the doctors I met pleaded with me to get the sanction committee (of which the U.S. was in charge) to lift the ban on medicines and machines they desperately needed to treat their patients.
So Jon is right, the war against Iraq didn’t end with a cessation of overt military operations. The Iraq civilians were subjected for ten years to a war of oppression, deprivation, civil destruction, and physical decimation. This latest attack has only been the culmination of the decades long campaign to destroy the country.
Like Jon, I’ll refrain from reiterating the reason why the U.S. wants to destroy Iraq.
[I was in Iraq, after Gulf War I, when the media influenced world led us to believe that everything in that region was Kosher. It was not. We were conducting operations there for ten years after the initial Gulf War. I can't allude to or describe what we did or where, but I can say, honestly, that we were there.]
When I was in Iraq in January 2003 (two months before the U.S. invasion) I visited the southern city of Basrah. While walking on the street one afternoon, air raid sirens went off. Alarmed, I asked an Iraqi bystander what was going on. He told me that it was a common occurrence, signifying U.S. military jets flying over the city. They were patrolling the southern “no-fly zone,” established by the U.S. after Gulf War 1. Iraqi aircraft were not allowed to fly in this area or its corresponding zone in the north. The U.S. air patrols were allegedly protecting Iraqi citizens from Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately more often, the jets targeted Iraqi civilian areas, which is why the air raid sirens warned of their presence. I saw houses reduced to rubble from U.S. missile attacks.
In Basrah I visited a water treatment plant that was barely functioning because the parts and chemicals they needed were prohibited by the economic sanctions. Same with the electrical power plants. We experienced several required black-out periods so that energy could be reserved for times of greatest need.
I also visited a hospital and spoke with a woman doctor there who has been treating Iraqis for Depleted Uranium sickness; a multitude of cancers caused by munitions used in Gulf War 1. Girls as young as eight years old were developing uterine cancer, something unheard of before Gulf War 1 and unknown anywhere else in the world. She showed me a photo album filled with hundreds of pictures of deformities in Iraqi babies born since the war. She said this was only a small sample of the thousands of occurrences. There are also an abnormal amount of deformities among the babies born to Gulf War soldiers.
I visited three hospitals while in Iraq and all were in terrible shape. Ammonia was one of the sanction prohibited chemicals, so sanitation was a problem. Many medications and diagnostic machinery were also prohibited and the doctors I met pleaded with me to get the sanction committee (of which the U.S. was in charge) to lift the ban on medicines and machines they desperately needed to treat their patients.
So Jon is right, the war against Iraq didn’t end with a cessation of overt military operations. The Iraq civilians were subjected for ten years to a war of oppression, deprivation, civil destruction, and physical decimation. This latest attack has only been the culmination of the decades long campaign to destroy the country.
Like Jon, I’ll refrain from reiterating the reason why the U.S. wants to destroy Iraq.
The reason Basrah, and the southern region of Iraq were/are so important, is that 90% of that country’s oil refinery operations are all in the southern region of the country.
I grew up in the oil fields of West Texas. I worked on the rigs, I did roustabout work, roughnecker work, and I also worked off-shore in the gulf. There is a significant expense and capital outlay to find crude oil, then retract it from the earth. This is what I call seed money or venture capital money.
The real expense, and profit, is in the refinery aspect of producing energy. … i.e. gasoline, diesel, karosene, etc.
The refining aspect of this equation is why we are paying such enormous (by our own country’s standards) amounts of money at the pump.
We have the crude oil here. (thats a different column all unto itself!) Our problem is we can’t refine it. And the oil companies are fine with that because it means their profits continue to astromically climb through the roof, padding pockets and bank accounts. (this is why Congress and/or the American people should start stepping in and doing something .)
They (the oil companies) are fine with allowing the GreenPeace types and the whacko environmentalists of this country to continually make it difficult for them to construct new refineries. Why outlay the capital to build a new refinery when the lack thereof means more profit? Make sense? Does to me.
So, back to Iraq. as I said earlier, 90% of the refineries in Iraq are in the Basrah region. Know why we have so thoroughly monitored and enforced that region?
Sorry, I won’t tell you. Look at what companies have controlling interests in those operations.
This is all soooo starting to make alot of sense to me!
– J
The reason Basrah, and the southern region of Iraq were/are so important, is that 90% of that country’s oil refinery operations are all in the southern region of the country.
I grew up in the oil fields of West Texas. I worked on the rigs, I did roustabout work, roughnecker work, and I also worked off-shore in the gulf. There is a significant expense and capital outlay to find crude oil, then retract it from the earth. This is what I call seed money or venture capital money.
The real expense, and profit, is in the refinery aspect of producing energy. … i.e. gasoline, diesel, karosene, etc.
The refining aspect of this equation is why we are paying such enormous (by our own country’s standards) amounts of money at the pump.
We have the crude oil here. (thats a different column all unto itself!) Our problem is we can’t refine it. And the oil companies are fine with that because it means their profits continue to astromically climb through the roof, padding pockets and bank accounts. (this is why Congress and/or the American people should start stepping in and doing something .)
They (the oil companies) are fine with allowing the GreenPeace types and the whacko environmentalists of this country to continually make it difficult for them to construct new refineries. Why outlay the capital to build a new refinery when the lack thereof means more profit? Make sense? Does to me.
So, back to Iraq. as I said earlier, 90% of the refineries in Iraq are in the Basrah region. Know why we have so thoroughly monitored and enforced that region?
Sorry, I won’t tell you. Look at what companies have controlling interests in those operations.
This is all soooo starting to make alot of sense to me!
– J