You are correct,
in terms of the perennial Mid-East conflagrations and problems, in the sense
that oil cannot possibly be the sole motive for what the Iraqi
war.
That is not to
say it does not have a role. After the horror of the twin towers
devastation, the "oil weapon" arose as a more prioritised issue,
and viewed as an important instrument in the potential arsenal of
unfriendly Arab states.
Likewise, a
number of other factors played a part, including the removal of Saddam
Hussein, which cannot be viewed as a totally cynical gesture, since
many Iraqi peoples and other anxious Arabs themselves had genuine Human
Rights concerns, and had petitioned the global community in general and the
US in particular, to act against the despotic Iraqi
regime.
In any case, the
simple fact is, for millennia, many foreign powers have
poked their political noses into the Mid-East region and been left the
worse for it; and this was in historic periods when OIL was not even an
existent or known commodity.
Also, and in
part, "the no blood for oil" campaign was a chimera which
disguised the multi-faceted aspects of the whole operation; political,
religious and economic; making it appear that a singular objective alone was
in play.
This was also an
important propaganda slogan developed by the Roman Catholic ecclesia,
which today feels betrayed by Mr Bush II; after he successfully
captured a good deal of the conservative Catholic American vote, with
the aid of the pope.
Part of the papal
angst began when President Bush II, publicly proclaimed that the
Infallible pope of Rome, gods very own voice on earth, was wrong
over his anti-war stance. Such humiliation and snubbery, from all people,
the leader of the worlds most powerful nation, went down like a lead
Zeppelin in Vatican circles.
The present toxic
venin toward Bush II is such that; it has been publicised that many insider
clerics within the Vatican claim that the Pope considers Bush II, the
Antichrist.
Hence, Bush II is
being presently crucified by so-called anti-Zionists and anti-Neo-Cons
who mewl their chorus lines inspirationally Scored by
clerical theoreticians and propagandists who are centuries-old-practiced in
the art of malice and hate.
In the past, the
pope spoke out against the war, but did very little to speak out against
Saddam's despotic regime.
It was more
important for the pope to decry and protest American power, even when
clearly it was used for a good end.
Given the
popes alleged high moral turf right beside Jesus; ethical
people were left to ponder whether the Vatican and the pope had gone troppo,
assuming they were ever sane in the first place.
Even
significant European Liberals dissented from their predominantly
anti-American colleagues, who disguised their anti-Americanism with a
bloated, sanctimonious anti-war rhetorical
facade.
"I think it's
not by chance that the idea of confronting evil may have found more
support in those countries that have had a recent experience with
totalitarian systems compared with other European countries that haven't
had the same sort of recent experience." - Vaclav
Havel
The situation of
the US today near-parallels the power of ancient Imperial Rome in the
Mid-East some two millennia ago.
The issues the
Caesars faced in the region were manifold in number; waring religious
and political factions fighting one another internally and everybody
else externally; which all tended to impede Rome's military lebensraum
and its economic interests. Rome, like the US, sought a negotiated
peace in the region, but alas there was
none.
The modern State
of Israel simply would not exist if it were not an invented and
empowered by the Christo-Zionists.
Religiously, many
pious Jews themselves see Israel's modern re-establishment in terms of an
ungodly urge by other apostate Jews; and political Israel as
a mere ersatz State.
They may be
correct. There is a prior biblical case study with a similar paradigm and
outcome.
This involved
Abraham, the founder and patriarch of the Hebrews, who attempted to
self-fulfil gods promise to him that he would be the father of
the gods chosen people.
Abrahams
matrimonial wife Sahara, via whom the messianic people were to arrive,
was childless and barren into her old age.
Thus, Abraham and Sarah reasoned, they would help
Providence along a bit and decided the best way to do that was
to have a sexual liaison with a young Egyptian slave girl
named Hagar.
Abrahams
intention was noble, but his desire to self-fulfil gods
promise proved to be a source of disharmony between Sarah and Hagar,
because Sarah finally, by a miracle of god; fell pregnant in old
age and birthed Isaac. However, Sarah after having her own child, she
was no longer secure with a competitor to the Abramic lineage
and had her hubby remove Hagar and Ishmael from the family
environ.
It is said by
some commentators, that this ancient tale incorporates the source of a
long enmity between Jews and Arabs.
In
Christianity, the apostle Paul makes an allegorical use of this episode in
the history of Ishmael and Isaac to support his argument for the
transitory character of the Jewish ritual and the final triumph of Christian
freedom over all Judaizing
tendencies.
Many
reason today that Israel is a ersatz
political State, like the son of Hagar, an impetuous act
against Providence by its progenitors which gave birth
to disharmony.
That said, the
root of the idea of the Jewish Diaspora
returning to the "Promised Land" came to prominence via the
intellectual arm of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation movement; the
Jesuits.
The Jesuit
apologists sought to dispel the Reformation idea that the despotic Roman
Papacy was the citadel of Antichrist and the idea that the pope
himself was the Antichrist; an idea widely disseminated, believed and
acted on as drives abandoned the papal system.
The Jesuit
writers invented and widely circulated the idea of an apocalyptic
future, wherein the Jews would return to Israel and rebuild their
Temple.
Additionally,
somewhere in the process; a Jewish Antichrist would arise, a fiery
Armageddon would ensure, the majority of Jews would perish in the inferno;
after which, a thousand years of peace would usher in; and
Catholicism would rule the whole earth. The destruction of the Jews probably
emanated from the long and virulent anti-Semitism of the papacy and later
the Jesuit intelligentsia.
Like a mycelium,
this Jesuit Futurism came to infect bible interpretations amongst a
multitude of future Protestant sects around the world; particularly in the
United States and Britain. Today, the concept is highly popular,
particularly amongst the Dispensationalist crowd, many who also
subscribe to the whacky Rapture fiction.
Amongst these
Jesuit Futurists and their spiritual progeny,
the Dispensationalists, the return of Jews to Israel was seen as a
necessary fulfilment of bible prophecy.
This idea became
a powerful motive; political and clerical influence was bought to bare in
order to make the prophecy eventuate.
Most people in
the West do not understand the fact that Zion is inherently a
populist term developed by Christendom's clerics.
Zion, for the
Christian, is an epithet for the "New Jerusalem," found in the Christian
apocalyptic book of Revelation; and the New Jerusalem itself is a euphemism
for the golden age of Christianity, wherein a new heaven and a new earth are
ushered in and the Christians are divinely appointed rulers in New
Zion.
Zion, is simply
another pet name for the Christian "City of God".
For a Jew living
in Israel, made cognizant of megalomaniac theories of Christo-Zionists, one
would have to be anxious as to who posed the
greater threat; Israel's Arab neighbours, or the wild-eyed
fantasies of Christo-Zionism.
The latter
believe that the Jews will in the 'End Times' serve a demonic personage of
Jewish extract they call Antichrist; that most of the Jews will be barbecued
in the fiery, some say nuclear, war of Armageddon; and the Jewish
survivors will be happy, converted servile sods ruled by a divinely
appointed Christian elite who, perhaps given such nightmarish
prognostications, might better be called KKKristians.
So no, oil is not
of sole import in the Iraqi region of
geo-politics.
Dave.
