Wanted: Any enemy with oil

It is good to see that there are still some out there in America that take a quite jaundiced view of the US role on the global stage. This person is not some leftist radical intellectual writing from the ivory tower but a farmer. He manages to say a lot and back it up in a short article. This is from this newspaper. I don't think that it is just any enemy with oil only ones without nuclear deterrents. Russia isn't about to be invaded.


Wanted: Any enemy with oil





By Greg Rendahl

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As the United States increasingly threatens war against Iran, let’s look at some of the relevant facts.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions are worrisome, but legal. They do support the economic underdogs, their fellow Shia in Lebanon, through Hezbollah and they support the downtrodden Palestinians when almost no one else does.

In July the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said there was no evidence of Iranian involvement in violence in Iraq. Iran has not invaded another nation in more than 250 years.

In contrast, America has invaded many countries. To name but a few, we invaded Mexico (1846, 1914), Cuba (1898), Hawaii (1898), the Philippines (1899), Morocco (1904), Panama (1904, 1989), Dominican Republic, Haiti and Nicaragua (many times), Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, etc. Why do we invade so many other nations? Is it to bring

freedom and democracy to their people?

Two recent examples prove that this is not the case.

When Venezuela’s popular and democratically elected leader was removed temporarily in a military coup in 2002, Bush immediately recognized the coup leaders as the new government.

When Hamas won the last elections in Palestine, the United States refused to accept the democratic view of that nation.

Also, don’t forget, we destroyed democracy in Iran in 1953 because the Iranians wanted greater control of their oil.

Do we care about democracy in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, for instance? Apparently not, and isn’t it interesting that these two nations produced the hijackers who attacked us on Sept.11, 2001?

These hijackers then gave our neo-conservatives their fondest wish — a chance to whip up frenzy over al-Qaeda, Islamic terrorists and all related boogiemen.

By the way, isn’t it funny that America’s leaders quit flying on commercial aircraft in the summer of 2001 and that America was so incredibly unprepared for the Sept. 11 attacks?

For the neo-cons, their other great accomplishment has been to clamp down on freedom in America with their Patriot acts, free-speech-zones, targeting opposition with the word “traitor,” and mutating the Department of Justice into the Department of Detention.

Iran’s president, who has very limited power in their nation, plays to his rather small base of followers with his tough talk against the United States and Israel. Bush and Cheney play to their small base of followers, but let’s not leave out most other Republicans and a large number of Democrats who push to see their corporate sponsors gain a measure of control over Iran’s vast energy wealth.

Alan Greenspan and former CENTCOM commander Gen. John Abizaid both have said Iraq was basically about oil. Were Iraq and Afghanistan “stepping stones” to surround Iran and assume a degree of control over this energy-rich area?

It appears that “peak oil” is basically here now. If America continues current policies, we will look for one “evil leader” after another who has meaningful energy resources or good pipeline routes.

The goal is continued corporate domination with wealth moving from you and I to compliant oil-rich nations, and the corporate interests involved with oil production and war-related industries.

Rendahl is a farmer who subscribes to the idea that politics and prostitution are the oldest professions.
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