TEd, I'm not denying that there is a real and specific threat out there that needs to be confronted. (namely the disempowering of Al Quada and the apprehension or demise of their leaders, and then some other like groups). But I fear by diluting the specific quest by selfishly and cynically attaching the agenda of the Oil Cartel to it, and making that the secret priority instead of the original goal, the Bushes are igniting a catastrophe beyond the scope of reason. Big Oil and its power has always been what the Bushes were about, and it's their own greedy and foremost agenda beyond any party or national interest. Why do you think Bush, Sr., so cynically left us enmeshed in Somalia when he turned the reins over to Clinton?...because of the new oil reserves discovered in that country. Have we ever gone in to "stabilize" any other African nation when they were hell-bent on slaughtering each other in civil conflict?...no. And I think the new ambivalence by the administration to the capture or death of Bin Laden is a symptom of that. (Unless, knowing the ENRON scandal was about to erupt they let Bin Laden slip away so they had an excuse to keep the war going and cover their butts). But by not focusing all resources on the real threat...the detection, disempowering, and dissolution of the Al Quada terrorist network (with the Bushes so opportunistically finagling the scenario of "response" to fit their self-serving Big Oil agenda), not only do we dilute our focus and render ourselves more vulnerable to future terrorists attacks, but we also spawn a deeper alienation among moderate Arabs and Muslims, and forge a widening gap of hatred instead of working to close it. ("collateral damage" works wonders for spawning new hatred). And you best believe there are already, and have been since before the Gulf War in '92, covert US special forces and agents on the ground in Iraq (many of them US soldiers/agents of Arab-descent who fit right in) with new weapons with accuracies of phenomenal range, just waiting for the "go" to take Saddam out...but they're not going to get that "go" because those in power want this war...just like they wanted it in '92. Why? Who knows? (aside from the obvious, the filling of the coffers of the weapons manufacturers, of course) A friend whose brother who was a Navy Seal knows some folks in the intelligence community, and he was told that before the Gulf War one of these operatives had Saddam in his sights and called in with a plea to take him out...the request was emphatically denied, and what's more...he was told there was a gun trained on him and if he pulled the trigger he was a dead man. They don't want Saddam gone...they want war...it's crazy. And, once more, I ask where is Bin Laden? Diluting our focus from the specific threat is going to cost us, and the world, dearly in the long run.
