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**PartTimePongo** · 19-03-07, 13:42

Opinion peace from Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar that makes some interesting points..

“Approach each new problem not with a view of finding what you hope will be there, but to get the truth, the realities that must be grappled with. You may not like what you find. In that case you are entitled to try to change it. But do not deceive yourself as to what you do find to be the facts of the situation.” Bernard M. Baruch (1870 - 1965)

I believe that in every war, truth is the first casualty; and as such is usually reported long after the war is finished, and even then only as a foot note. Churchill once said that “men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” Although others and I have repeatedly written about the reasons behind the Iraq invasion, people tend to forget. And people who forget tend to repeat the same mistake over and over again. The invasion of Iraq was not because of WMDs. It was about oil and Israel. Today the US is on the verge of starting another war again, this time with Iran, for exactly the same reasons.

But is it necessary? Can US have access to oil without dominating the region? Can Israel accept the fact that others also feel insecure and need guarantees for their security

http://www.amin.org/look/amin/en.tpl...=1&NrSection=3

**Maxi_77** · 19-03-07, 14:04

I for one have always had some difficulty with the oil argument, there is enough to go round and if a won't sell you any, b will. I thing SH being a vain bully tried to pretent that he still had WMD so that he could be seen by those around him as standing up to GW and the US and equally believed that when push came to shove the Americans wouldn't invade. Sadly for all he got that one wrong. He kept the grandstand act going too long and at the end gave in in a way that re-inforced the US idea that he was hiding something. Of course the fact that much of the 'evidence' came from emigrees intend on getting rid of SH probably didn't help, along with SHs history of trying to always gain an edge somewhere. As to Israel I am sure they helped things along by helping build the WMD story.

**asst_dep_to_dep_asst** · 19-03-07, 14:24

Of course, it's time for peace, but there are too many entrenched views held by too many interested parties for this to come about while any sentient human being still believes in God. I don't think that Dr Bakhtiar is too far wrong in his belief that Iraq was invaded to secure oil supplies for the US and that if anything else gets in the way of this stream, it will be dealt with in a similar manner.

**Bergen** · 19-03-07, 16:05

Originally Posted by Maxi_77

I for one have always had some difficulty with the oil argument, there is enough to go round and if a won't sell you any, b will. I thing SH being a vain bully tried to pretent that he still had WMD so that he could be seen by those around him as standing up to GW and the US and equally believed that when push came to shove the Americans wouldn't invade. Sadly for all he got that one wrong. He kept the grandstand act going too long and at the end gave in in a way that re-inforced the US idea that he was hiding something. Of course the fact that much of the 'evidence' came from emigrees intend on getting rid of SH probably didn't help, along with SHs history of trying to always gain an edge somewhere. As to Israel I am sure they helped things along by helping build the WMD story.

I must have missed something here. Oil is a finite resource and production barely keeps up with consumption; additional oil discoveries keep pace with neither. Emerging economies are draining a resource once thought to be exclusive preserve of the West. In just a few years the world will be in a real energy crunch.

By invading Iraq Georgie and Tone thought that they had the world's second biggest oil-reserves in their pockets and could control the rest of the region and therefore the price per barrel. This is why 14 "Enduring Super Bases" are being constructed in Iraq by the USA and even the Democrats are saying that the US will be based in Iraq for many years to come. Remember that Saudi Arabia had kicked them out of existing bases just a few years before.

Bliar and Bush knew that the reasons for the illegal invasion were not just suspect but totally fabricated. They knew this because they were the ones disseminating, lying and fabricating. Both the USA and Britain knew that there were no WMD's in Iraq. They had been told this by Hans Blix and also by Hussein Karmal.

Invade Iraq > Get control of Iraqi oil> Control the region> Control regional oil supplies> Control governments> Protect Israel.

It was all very well laid out in the document "Project For A New American Century" by a right-wing US think-tank.

RM

**Six_and_a_Half** · 19-03-07, 19:02

It is time for war in Iraq and possibly indeed the Middle-East, and like it or not this war will happen and will happen now. But I would recommend for the good of British lives that troops should be withdrawn and we should let them get on with it.

Iraq is an Islamic nation, but of three major schisms. The Kurds to the North, the Shi'ites to the South and the Sunnis in the middle who nobody particularly care for. It wouldn't really all be so bad except these three schisms hate each other and in the power vacuum left by Saddam Hussein are all vying for leadership. Iraq is not a democratic country and I believe that upon pulling British and American forces back home will return to its savage, dictatorship ways, following a horrible civil war.

The best option I think, is to permit this civil war to take place rather than sacrifice the lives of British peacekeeping forces any longer. I accept that this will cruelly condemn many innocents to death, and the country to an economic depression. But I cannot believe that I am alone when I consider the lives of British nationals above the lives of foreigners.

Ready for incoming.

**slim** · 19-03-07, 19:17