"People say we're not fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America's national interest. What the hell do you think they're talking about? We're not there for figs." Continue reading →
"Wars rarely have one clear and singular purpose, and the Iraq War in particular was driven by different agendas prioritized by different factions. To say it was fought exclusively due to oil is an oversimplification. But the fact that oil is a major factor in every Western military action in the Middle East is so self-evident that it's astonishing that it's even considered debatable, let alone some fringe and edgy idea. Yet few claims were more stigmatized in the run-up to the Iraq War, and after, than the view that oil was a substantial factor. In 2006, George Bush instructed us that there was a 'responsible' way to criticize the US war effort in Iraq, and an 'irresponsible' way to do so, and he helpfully defined the boundaries." Continue reading →
"Like most lefty journalists, I assumed that George Bush and Tony Blair invaded Iraq to buy up its oil fields, cheap and at gun-point, and cart off the oil. We thought we knew the neo-cons true casus belli: Blood for oil. But the invasion was not about 'blood for oil', but something far more sinister: blood for no oil. War to keep supply tight and send prices skyward. Oil men, whether James Baker or George Bush or Dick Cheney, are not in the business of producing oil. They are in the business of producing profits. And they've succeeded. Iraq, capable of producing six to 12 million barrels of oil a day, still exports well under its old OPEC quota of three million barrels." Continue reading →
"He reflected deeply on the law for almost two decades, through numerous presidencies, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; consulted a whole group of constitutional scholars; taught constitutional law classes on the separation of powers; and went on national TV while running for president to declare unilateral executive-branch war-making a high crime! But now that he's part of an administration openly pondering strikes on Syria without Congressional approval -- even as dozens of legislators demand to be consulted -- Biden doesn't have any public objections, and the position he and his constitutional experts once asserted is treated as a naive curiosity in the press." Continue reading →
"In response to Bashir Assad’s crossing of a 'red line' by allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people, Secretary of State John Kerry cites his own fatherly feelings as justification for the all-but-inevitable looming US military intervention in Syria. 'As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head, of a father who held up his dead child, wailing …' Hopefully CNN will try extra hard to sanitize the war footage from Syria once the bombing starts, now that we know how badly dead Syrian kids upset Kerry. Because there are a lot more dead Syrian kids on the way. This is the same John Kerry who served in Vietnam, and who backed two attacks on Iraq and one on Afghanistan, is it not?" Continue reading →
"In response to Bashir Assad’s crossing of a 'red line' by allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people, Secretary of State John Kerry cites his own fatherly feelings as justification for the all-but-inevitable looming US military intervention in Syria. 'As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head, of a father who held up his dead child, wailing …' Hopefully CNN will try extra hard to sanitize the war footage from Syria once the bombing starts, now that we know how badly dead Syrian kids upset Kerry. Because there are a lot more dead Syrian kids on the way. This is the same John Kerry who served in Vietnam, and who backed two attacks on Iraq and one on Afghanistan, is it not?" Continue reading →
"In response to Bashir Assad’s crossing of a 'red line' by allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people, Secretary of State John Kerry cites his own fatherly feelings as justification for the all-but-inevitable looming US military intervention in Syria. 'As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head, of a father who held up his dead child, wailing …' Hopefully CNN will try extra hard to sanitize the war footage from Syria once the bombing starts, now that we know how badly dead Syrian kids upset Kerry. Because there are a lot more dead Syrian kids on the way. This is the same John Kerry who served in Vietnam, and who backed two attacks on Iraq and one on Afghanistan, is it not?" Continue reading →
"In response to Bashir Assad’s crossing of a 'red line' by allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people, Secretary of State John Kerry cites his own fatherly feelings as justification for the all-but-inevitable looming US military intervention in Syria. 'As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head, of a father who held up his dead child, wailing …' Hopefully CNN will try extra hard to sanitize the war footage from Syria once the bombing starts, now that we know how badly dead Syrian kids upset Kerry. Because there are a lot more dead Syrian kids on the way. This is the same John Kerry who served in Vietnam, and who backed two attacks on Iraq and one on Afghanistan, is it not?" Continue reading →
"In response to Bashir Assad’s crossing of a 'red line' by allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people, Secretary of State John Kerry cites his own fatherly feelings as justification for the all-but-inevitable looming US military intervention in Syria. 'As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head, of a father who held up his dead child, wailing …' Hopefully CNN will try extra hard to sanitize the war footage from Syria once the bombing starts, now that we know how badly dead Syrian kids upset Kerry. Because there are a lot more dead Syrian kids on the way. This is the same John Kerry who served in Vietnam, and who backed two attacks on Iraq and one on Afghanistan, is it not?" Continue reading →
"In response to Bashir Assad’s crossing of a 'red line' by allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people, Secretary of State John Kerry cites his own fatherly feelings as justification for the all-but-inevitable looming US military intervention in Syria. 'As a father, I can’t get the image out of my head, of a father who held up his dead child, wailing …' Hopefully CNN will try extra hard to sanitize the war footage from Syria once the bombing starts, now that we know how badly dead Syrian kids upset Kerry. Because there are a lot more dead Syrian kids on the way. This is the same John Kerry who served in Vietnam, and who backed two attacks on Iraq and one on Afghanistan, is it not?" Continue reading →