>Etc. No link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, never has been, but very >strong links between Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda, and between the US >and Al Qaeda. Always have been - it's their creation after all.
Yes, this clarified the matter better. I think it's shameful what happened with the redaction in the official report. We Americans cannot get a more rational handle on this situation if the facts are to be kept from us. The President's claims of not wanting to endanger investigations and agents was, in my view, disingnenuous. >A closer focus. I posted a piece about the CIA-backed anti-Mossadegh >coup in Iran in the 50s - these are the links: Yes, I know, I read that and passed it on to others. > >http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2003/000158.html >We Had a Democracy Once, But You Crushed It >The same goes for Saudi Arabia - what would Saudi Arabia be like >today if the US hadn't been propping up the regime there all these >decades, including defending (?) it against *internal* threats, such >as democracy for instance? Has that been policy? Or just big oil >interests again? This is a good point.. It is grossly hypocritical for the US to claim concern with establishing Democracy in the M.E. when it has not pushed for this with its top trade partners. And who in S.A. and elsewhere has benefited for the last umpteen years? I don't think that there hasn't been some trickle-down in S.A., but that's not the way we should be looking at it, from the point of view of alleged advocacy of rights and individual self-support and such. >>It's an imbalance, it's not healthy, and the damage is long >>long long ago done. The damage is measured, from a U.S. point of >>view, in lost jobs, lives, focus. Benefit has accrued to a narrow >>cadre in the U.S. of fossil fuel traders. To try to be fair, I think >>on could argue that access to affordable oil also gives everyone >>benefits, such as decreased cost of doing business for a long while, >>and that the Saudis have done well from this imbalance and one could >>ask "what's so terrible about that". > >Have they? The regime certainly has, at least in sheer money terms. That's true, many haven't. > >>I'm not trying to start a flame war here, but it did seem like a time >>to respond to some of this. > >No flame war required. :-) > >Denial of Israel's right to exist is not nearly as widespread or as >uncompromising as once it was - Sadat in, um, 1977? How far did he >get? Sharing a prize with Begin, of all people (who really was a >terrorist)? How about if the US stopped vetoing all those UN >resolutions? One major kill-all-the-Jews-drive-them-into-the-Sea combatant changes its tune in 55 years? Maybe in another 200 years we can get a couple more on board? After a few million more deaths on all sides? Even if one's only concern is the Palestinians, I'd say, just from that point of view, that this has to change. This refusal to acknowledge the right of existence (in defiance of the original U.N. act) is a part of the problem that hasn't been addressed. There are many other very significant parts of the problem, such as the settlements, but, if we ask the question "Basically, what would we have the Israelis do?" then I don't know how to answer that when every day they are facing several dozen millions of neighbors some of whom have a stated goal to kill every Jewish person in Israel, and many others who don't seem sufficiently or efficiaciously to differentiate their views from those of the former group. Evidently, neither Israel nor establishment of rights-oriented Republics in the Arab world is as big a priority with us as unfettered access to cheap oil and profits for a quiet privileged few, or we'd have gone to the mat over those issues long ago. I wish someone in Saudi Arabia were listening, and that they keep the price of Oil very up for a long time to come. That would cut through a lot of arguments. It would be better for us, and it would be better for them, in my view. MM ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
