Articles

Jan. 31, 2003

Remember the Columbia

The concerns with US imperialism come into view about this time in the cycle. In the 1890s the debate over imperialism was high on the agenda of course at that point the US had been aggressively pursuing an expansion of its borders. However it was felt at the time the US was intent on the entire world. The same fears arose after WWII for obvious reasons..

The truth is US style democracy is difficult to implement. The mood of the people in the US will not tolerate long term subjugation of people. (I am sure there are those that will disagree with this) The process of statehood is a rigorous one and requires a level of integrity in government few can provide. Case in point Washington DC.

I am not totally convinced our motivation in Iraq is to get oil. I am sure like Reagan setting the standard for breaking unions by locking out the air traffic controllers that we want to see the end of OPEC. Brinker on a recent show was attacking the actions of OPEC back in the 1970s as an act of war. He did not get much follow through, but he is not wrong. While we move in Iraq, the real enemy is sitting quietly doing nothing to help and funding terrorism with every barrel of oil sold. I am actually in shock the connection has not found its way into the hearts and minds of Americans. Here people are marching in the streets against war with Iraq and no one is taking up the banner against OPEC and Saudi who have been at war with us for the past 25+ years. There are some hugely misdirected people out there.

If anything a case can be made with the first Iraqi war to limit the flow of oil. At the time of the war the price of oil had dropped to disastrous levels and the Texas Oil Patch was hurting. There was fear of $5 oil. These guys got killed financially. The end result of the first Iraqi War was to limit oil production and to raise the price

I find this a bit coincidental considering Bush Sr.'s political support was from this block.

Finally the more I look at this thing and the more I look at the Spanish American War the parallels are hard to miss. I fear Bush will have to create a "Remember the Maine". It is questionable if either side sabotaged the Maine, but the explosion was enough for Hearst to sell the public on war. Today I have been looking for a parallel event. My heart goes out to the families of the Columbia, but I have to wonder if this tragedy can be expanded to the level of the Maine. (For those of you who do not know - the Maine was a battleship anchored in Cuba that blew up in January 1898. Hearst made a big deal and coined the slogan Remember the Maine. There is little evidence the Maine was attacked by Spanish saboteurs. It appears the boilers just exploded from incompetence. The event galvanized the public and Congress declared war on Spain. The war lasted 100 days.

I have been saying the US will not be able to get a war supported by our allies in Iraq without an event staged or misinterpreted to ferment emotion. Of course it is too early to tell and I am probably be irresponsible and insensitive for suggesting the possibility. Yet history is strewn with misconceptions and misinterpretations of events that have been used for political ends. More recently the Arkanside List propagated on the Internet against Clinton. The list contained huge inaccuracies and plain stupid associations, but those that disliked Clinton more than happily accepted it as truth.

Here we have all the makings for a perfect conspiracy. It seems Texas is high in the making of conspiracies. An Israeli taken out by an al Qaeda transported across the Mexican boarder with weapons manufactured in North Korea and funded by Iraq. All of the hot buttons are there. I am probably reaching, but the nature of these things tends towards more fantasy than reality.