Thursday, July 01, 2004
Haliburton Bin Laden
Okay, I couldn't wait and I watched the movie. Although, as I have previously stated, I am predisposed to agree with Mr. Moore, I was aghast at the extent of the money trail from Bush/Cheney to the Bin Laden family. What's most effective is Mr. Moore's use of the simple fact soundbite ( i.e. only one member of congress has a son or daughter in the armed forces ) and Bush's own words against him ( "fool me once....um...er..."). My own parents, republican all their voting lives, shake their heads in dismay when they think back to november 2000 and the ( wrong ) choice they made. I say to Tony Alva, who asks; if it's about oil, where is it all? Well, I refer you to the scene in Goodfellas where the guy's wife walks in to the club sporting a new fur coat after the big heist. You have to wait a while before you start spending your windfall or else you get busted. Looks like these partucular crooks won't get busted, but at least they may not get invited back to the party. Don't worry though, I'm sure Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney will still be around to make money off of the suffering of others for years to come.
Okay, I couldn't wait and I watched the movie. Although, as I have previously stated, I am predisposed to agree with Mr. Moore, I was aghast at the extent of the money trail from Bush/Cheney to the Bin Laden family. What's most effective is Mr. Moore's use of the simple fact soundbite ( i.e. only one member of congress has a son or daughter in the armed forces ) and Bush's own words against him ( "fool me once....um...er..."). My own parents, republican all their voting lives, shake their heads in dismay when they think back to november 2000 and the ( wrong ) choice they made. I say to Tony Alva, who asks; if it's about oil, where is it all? Well, I refer you to the scene in Goodfellas where the guy's wife walks in to the club sporting a new fur coat after the big heist. You have to wait a while before you start spending your windfall or else you get busted. Looks like these partucular crooks won't get busted, but at least they may not get invited back to the party. Don't worry though, I'm sure Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney will still be around to make money off of the suffering of others for years to come.
Comments:
Please Theo, I beg you... Read William Saffire's op/ed from last Wednesday. I'm not naive enough to beleive that money doesn't drive a good bit of political decisions, but you can not possibly beleive that Dick Cheney pushed W to war to get rich off of contracts!? That this countries VP is so driven by greed that he would commit US troops to harms way for financial gain!? That Micheal Moore has some incredible and never before obtained access to what would be highly sensitive intel and be able to feature it in a movie, is just ridiculous. Put the bong down, read the CSM, or something other than the Times, and join us in the real world. You guys must deal with this fact: Oswald shot JFK,on his own, without CIA, mob, LBJ, etc.. involvment. Many, many guys can pull off that shot with that same crummy rifle. Join the Amazing Randy fan club as soon as possible.
Oh yeah, my folks say hi...
Tony
Oh yeah, my folks say hi...
Tony
Last thought... Why haven't we, (American press, bloggers, those seekers of the truth, etc...) zeroed in on our so called European allies who were so adament about not ousting Saddam? Much info is available for publication, but it never seems to get any real coverage. You detractors would rather talk about Dick Cheney conspricy theories, than our French and German "friends" who were the primary profitiers of illegal U.N. oil for food program petrol. They were enjoying the lowest fuel prices in many years prior to things heating up in Iraq, buying Iraqi oil through Syrian brokers. Gee, I wonder why they were so oposed to supporting us? Why isn't Micheal Moore making movies about the F'in Frogs blatant violation and exploitation of UN sanctions that they themselves voted for? Millions of Iraqi people suffered because their President was able to freely siphon money off this illicit scam instead of buying medicine and food for his people and France and Germany (and others) were right there to help him do it. It absolutely baffles me as to why the free worlds press corp is not looking into the motives of these governments AS MUCH AS our our current administration!? Other than what I've already said, it has to be utter laziness and the need to sell papers (who wants to read about European political afairs, right? We can't ever pronounce their names, what's this parliment thingy?)
Things are a mess that is for sure. It is clear that Bush and Co. did not prepare for what came next after the Saddam jetison. I struggle with this gross oversight more than any bullshit WMD discussion that we insist on wasting our time debating. I think they forgot that many otherwise neutral Iraqi's who might have embraced the U.S. as liberators had also lost many family members as casulties of the first gulf war. They remember who it was that felled their loved ones. This trumps Saddam's brutality in many cases. 100's of thousands died during that war and I'm sure it has tempered support for the rebuild effort.
So here it is again, Since eliminating terrorist is what our primary purpose is for this thing, I'd just assume we pull forces out of S. Korea, and Europe, complete a massive sweep through Falluja et al, squash the scumbags we really came to fight and get the hell out. Continue to support what ever works out in the aftermath assuming it's not to our own detrement. I don't think any us us would want our tax dollars sent to a zealot mullah based theocracy. The one major point that I can agree on with all the doves out there is that the Iraqi people are now free to do with their country what they want. It's sort of like when your kid comes home after highschool and tells you that he's decided not to go to college and wants to form a rock band instead. You could make him go to college which could be the best or the worst thing for him, or you could let him be a man and work it out on his own terms as well as benefit/suffer the consequences of his decision. This is how I see Iraq. The citizens don't want us there. They are glad Saddam is gone, but they themselves have been caught off guard by what his absence means (i.e. ethnic and religious instability). The Baathists knew this was waiting, but the majoritiy of the Iraqi progressives didn't. if the country break up along ethnic lines in a civil war, so be it. What difference would it really make to you and me? Again I say to you all, get over the why's and what for's of the past. It is done and there is nothing that can be done to undo it. Their are upsides and downsides to the situation. Vote Bush out of office in November if you want, I may even join you, but the situation is still the same. I say (assuming we can exterminate the terrorists making a home in Iraq currently) we have done what we came to do in Iraq, which was get rid of Saddam. We need to let whatever happens next, happen and get out of the way. We may very well have to deal with yet another dictatorship if things go completely bad, such as the Shia' creating another Iranian type theocracy, but it will be the Iraqi people who will decide this. Let the boy go out and take a stab at being a rock star for awhile. If he's smart and talented he might make it happen. If he's not, have the offer to go to college waiting for him. If he turns away from that, well, he's on his own.
Peace & Love,
TA
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Things are a mess that is for sure. It is clear that Bush and Co. did not prepare for what came next after the Saddam jetison. I struggle with this gross oversight more than any bullshit WMD discussion that we insist on wasting our time debating. I think they forgot that many otherwise neutral Iraqi's who might have embraced the U.S. as liberators had also lost many family members as casulties of the first gulf war. They remember who it was that felled their loved ones. This trumps Saddam's brutality in many cases. 100's of thousands died during that war and I'm sure it has tempered support for the rebuild effort.
So here it is again, Since eliminating terrorist is what our primary purpose is for this thing, I'd just assume we pull forces out of S. Korea, and Europe, complete a massive sweep through Falluja et al, squash the scumbags we really came to fight and get the hell out. Continue to support what ever works out in the aftermath assuming it's not to our own detrement. I don't think any us us would want our tax dollars sent to a zealot mullah based theocracy. The one major point that I can agree on with all the doves out there is that the Iraqi people are now free to do with their country what they want. It's sort of like when your kid comes home after highschool and tells you that he's decided not to go to college and wants to form a rock band instead. You could make him go to college which could be the best or the worst thing for him, or you could let him be a man and work it out on his own terms as well as benefit/suffer the consequences of his decision. This is how I see Iraq. The citizens don't want us there. They are glad Saddam is gone, but they themselves have been caught off guard by what his absence means (i.e. ethnic and religious instability). The Baathists knew this was waiting, but the majoritiy of the Iraqi progressives didn't. if the country break up along ethnic lines in a civil war, so be it. What difference would it really make to you and me? Again I say to you all, get over the why's and what for's of the past. It is done and there is nothing that can be done to undo it. Their are upsides and downsides to the situation. Vote Bush out of office in November if you want, I may even join you, but the situation is still the same. I say (assuming we can exterminate the terrorists making a home in Iraq currently) we have done what we came to do in Iraq, which was get rid of Saddam. We need to let whatever happens next, happen and get out of the way. We may very well have to deal with yet another dictatorship if things go completely bad, such as the Shia' creating another Iranian type theocracy, but it will be the Iraqi people who will decide this. Let the boy go out and take a stab at being a rock star for awhile. If he's smart and talented he might make it happen. If he's not, have the offer to go to college waiting for him. If he turns away from that, well, he's on his own.
Peace & Love,
TA
