Posted on 11/30/2006 4:47:01 AM PST by Tolik
With the gruesome killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Vladimir Putin's Russia stands accused of poisoning yet another critic.
Meanwhile, Syria continues to mastermind the murders of Lebanese democrats. Israeli-free Gaza is as violent as ever. Hezbollah is busy replenishing its stock of Iranian missiles. The theocracy in Iran keeps promising an end to Israel. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is slowly strangling democracy in Latin America in a manner that an impoverished Fidel Castro never could.
And then, of course, there's Afghanistan and Iraq.
It's easy to think that all of this violent instability across the globe is unconnected. But, in fact, in one way or another, oil and its huge profits are at the bottom of a lot of it.
Islamic jihadists, fed from petrodollar wealth of the Middle East, have the cash to arm and plan operations from Baghdad and Kabul to Madrid and London. Thanks to oil, unhinged leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran and Chavez in Venezuela can stay in power (and demand the world's attention) despite policies that ultimately harm their people, ruin their economies and imperil their neighbors.
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(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/
NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
New Link! http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
The left did say by the A.N.S.W.E.R. crowd from the beginning this 'war' was blood for oil. Interesting thing, they did not give a rats behind when Saddam slaughtered innocent blood marketing his oil under the UN table. Looks like there is a 'war' within a 'war'.
Whats wrong with blood for oil? Our whole economy runs on oil and I say we should kill any threat to our economy.
It makes me wonder: if I were being slowly lowered into a vat of boiling oil, would I lift my feet?
Oil is everthing in the world today. Of course it's blood for oil. Without oil wealth these countries could not threaten us.
Nothing, as long as it is the blood of yours or your own, not mine. ;-)
Why? Do you just ride a bicycle and heat your home with solar panels?
Yes, but oil is only a part of it. The basic cause is the Information Age, resulting from unprecedented advances in communication, transportation, and education throughout the world, all directly resulting from Western Civilization, with its liberality, liberty, benevolence, universal inclusiveness, and freedom of inquiry, speach, and belief.
This has raised the aspirations of people everywhere, resulting in an increased worldwide demand for oil and other resources. The aspirations of some are healthy, those of others pathological.
It has also revealed, to those who would destroy it, the weaknesses of Western Civilization, which is fundamentally responsible for the Information Age, notably the strain of decadence that is the Western Left, which renders the Western nations weakened and vulnerable, threatens to destroy Western Civilization from within, and makes the Western nations and their people increasingly vulnerable to predators who would destroy them from without.
It is ironic that the greatest accomplishments of Western Civilization should become the greatest threats to it. Behind it all is the age-old dual nature of mankind--good versus evil.
Or we could dramatically improve our ability to obtain and use oil. To do that, of course, we would have to provide incentives for doing things differently in the oil business rather than providing incentives for not changing anything. Perhaps his point is something along such lines. To quote Jason Vines, do we want to incentivize oil companies to continue to "avoid better technology?"
presume this's happening in lebanon. if true, how is it being allowed to continue? wasn't this supposed to be prohibited under settlemnet at end of crap/fighting last summer!!??
God gave this great country of ours the resources (oil) to not have to worry about this global threat from megalomaniacs.
It is the enemies within (MSM,DNC) that have so far succeeded in handicapping our ability to supply our own oil.
Clear and insightful...as usual.
It occurs to me that the conflict is not between the modern world and the backwards middle east. The conflict is between the abrupt modernization of the Arabs and their religious leaders who have not had the required time to "reform" Islam to the twenty first century.
The religious leaders then accuse the modern world of corrupting their faith.
The final solution will be for the Muslim religious leaders to update their religion.
bump
Please add me to this list... Thanks!
As usual, VDH has a pretty good handle on the topic.
I'm not sure though that even if energy independence could be achieved for the U.S. it would then serve to impoverish our enemies. They're going to sell their oil, and they're going to be wealthy from it. Who they sell it to won't make much difference.
So why not burn up theirs first? Save our reserves for when theirs runs out. OK, I'm mostly kidding about that, but not completely kidding.
Hanson finally writes as if he is addressing ordinary people...well, sort of.
At least he's not as wordy and obscure as he's almost always been.
Still, he's given to pedantics... but he's among the few to shake off the myopia that appears to plague the realization that we are fully engaged in World War 111...and are actually underwriting it.
and that only our enemy knows it...so far.
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