Iraq, Politics
Gary Hart wants to know why the White House Press Corps is avoiding an obvious question:
– Gary Hart
I have been pleading with the American press corps for months to ask the Bush administration one simple question, a question designed to expose our true agenda: “Are we, or are we not, constructing permanent military bases in Iraq?” Full stop.
Finally, this from Gen. John Abizaid, our senior military commander in Iraq: The United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and to protect the flow of oil…
As we learned nothing from the French experience in Indochina, we have learned nothing from the 28-year British occupation of Iraq. Presumably, our remaining forces, say 50,000 to 75,000, will be garrisoned outside the chaotic urban areas where they will be used to keep Syria at bay, intimidate the Iranians, and protect the Saudis (and their/our oil). Problem is, garrisoned U.S. forces will be safe within their fortresses from suicide bombers but sitting targets for mortars and IEDs launched by primitive artillery.
Hasn’t this been the long-range plan all along? In the run-up remember hearing that we could use a conquered Iraq as a sort of aircraft carrier from which we could police the Middle East.
Now we know why there are no funds for the reconstruction of the Iraqi infrastructure, eh?
No surprise, this. Isn’t that what empires always do? Resources have to be protected from indigenous resistance and from outside influences. And the mainstream media (in cahoots as it is with the powers that be) isn’t going to break such news to the public until it gets a go-ahead signal from the government.(the military, in this instance). That’s because invariably it’s we the people who will have to pay – In lives lost plus lots of moola. Which means that such information has to be carefully introduced – “Our permanent bases will enhance freedom and democracy and be cheaper than keeping a large army in Iraq” (as if that’s the only alternative, etc. etc). Besides, “best we leave such worries to our government”.. That way there’ll be more time for shopping in the mall, the latest celebrity scandal and Monday night football.
But what can we do about this propoganda? See through it, that’s what. And then change the world! .
Senator Hart is not alone with his question(s)! Where are they, how much have they cost US, and why have we constructed them, if not for “OIL” then why?
Permanent military bases in Iraq has always been the objective of the Dumbya dictatorship.
The orchestration and objective of the war has always been hardwired into the interests of the corporatocracy. The interests of Americans were never considered.
Sigh… Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski was on C-SPAN’s “Q And A” last night and she answers this question and much, much more.
http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1069
I hope someone will watch it or at least read the transcript. She will tell you where all of our money has gone. To build permanent “mega-military” bases in Iraq. She said Bush & Cheney don’t view America as a Republic but as a powerful Unilateral state. Her voice is important.
I read Kwiatkowski’s interview on the C-SPAN site and agree with CarBlogger that the strategy all along has been to conduct an “invasion” that became a “war of liberation” that morphed into an occupation that will finally end up a military colonization of Iraq. Not being more clever than they are, the Neo-Ferengi have resorted to a clumsy nineteenth century control schema to organize an “Imperium Americanum” geo-political paradigm. It’s based on ruthless, institution-shredding powermongering, recalling the methods of such luminaries as the Butcher of Serbia, now rotting away, and Ceaucescu of Roumania, also rotting away. But, I digress. Permanent bases construction occurred behind the smoke screen of “war, liberation and reconstruction” none of which was actually intended except as political theater. After all, if what you really want is to control oil reserves and dominate a region’s political future, you concoct whatever series of illusions is necessary to keep adversaries guessing and supplicants sibiliant, and you march on. At this interlude, the ancient prophecies are correct, the Earth is a Dark Star, indeed.
They’re building bases in Iraq so they have a staging point from which to invade Iran, Syria, etc. Iraq was never the main goal – it was just a stepping stone in a larger plan.
Again, they were quite open about this before the war. In fact, establishing Iraq as a staging ground for Imperial, er, U.S. forces was offered by various neo-cons as a major benefit of the conquest.