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How Many Lives Should Be Spent To
Keep America From Economic and Social Collapse?
By Nolan K. Anderson
12/08/05 "ICH"
-- -- "(I)t will take much more than the death of a few thousand
soldiers and the addition of a few hundred billion to the U.S.
government debt (200B adds 2.5% to America's debt load) to make them
walk away from access to the hundreds of trillions of dollars, at
current prices, worth of hydrocarbons that the region will extract
over the next 50 years. (likely thousands of trillions at future
prices)
Their financial if not moral calculus becomes even more
understandable when you consider that even this amount is literally
tiny when you compare it to the economic multiplier effect that
having oil and gas allows to the industrialized world. The money
multiplier is nothing to it. Consider. By some calculations every
barrel of oil carries the equivalent of 23,200 man-hours of work in
the physics sense of the term. Oil and natural gas are like air,
water or soil, in that they are easy to take for granted until you
lack them. (1) . . . Jeff Berg, Canadian political and peak oil
analyst.
Using this thought provoking analysis for George’s motivations, it
is easy to see why George relegated Afghanistan to second place in
“The War on Terror”. Raising poppies for illegal heroin production,
as profitable as it may be, is no match for the long-term
profitability of Middle Eastern Oil. So, while we are counting
bodies in the thousands, George, Dick and Donald may be preparing
for body bags in the tens of thousands and may be in the process of
reducing the Iraqi ownership of this oil using genocide. With
fortunes this size at stake, it is no wonder the Iraqis needed a
“good dose of democracy”. It is no wonder Iran and Syria are
suddenly found to be in the sights of our “democratic” leader. It is
no wonder George doesn’t appear to feel much remorse over the loss
of a relatively small number of American soldiers nor pangs of guilt
in asking Congress for relatively modest sums to maintain his war
machine – and pay off campaign debts.
The reader may well ask, “Where will the military come up with the
manpower necessary to maintain and/or supplement our present
military force since recruitment is down to perilous levels for even
the Pentagon’s present comparatively modest troop requirements - to
say nothing of expanding or prolonging our manpower requirements? Of
course the obvious answer is another military draft. However, that
avenue is not without its perils to the Administration if one
considers the rebellion of the American people toward the draft
during Viet Nam and their actually having stopped the Viet Nam War
partly because of the draft. Today, there is a vast difference in
the American environment. Today, thanks to George’s war effort and
its hysteria, America has set in place an atmosphere of “security”
or suppression of freedom that was unknown during Viet Nam. George
has now set in motion a precedent for suppressing dissent
unparalleled in our American history.
Another expanding source of manpower might be the use of mercenaries
– even considering their cost. If money is no object and monies
spent on war are to be considered a long-term investment, then
American and third world mercenaries present a virtually limitless
supply of fighting personnel.
It has been calculated that our present American economic life style
involves importing 6.36 million barrels of oil per day at a cost to
our GNP of $426 million dollars per day – calculated on $67 per
barrel oil. If oil goes to $100 per barrel, soldiers’ lives become
even cheaper. We see how cheap life becomes if we consider:
”Its (Iraq’s) oil reserves were equal to those of Saudi Arabia; its
reconstruction was estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars
to American firms; while its strategic position made it an ideal
place from which to project U.S. military power to the oil-rich Gulf
and to a vast region beyond”.( 2)
This is the view that drove the Bush Administration to “retaliate”
against Iraq for its non-existent participation in the 9/11 attacks
on the US. However, it is unlikely that this is the view that
allowed the Pentagon to send our troops into Iraq without body armor
or proper vehicle armor. This unpreparedness of our troops for
battle points to a much deeper weakness (or sickness) within our
country’s defense establishment. One wonders if even corruption is
sufficiently comprehensive to describe what should surely be
considered a national disgrace, a national tragedy and a war crime.
One wonders if even “politics” is a sufficiently offensive word to
describe these “oversights”. If “stupidity” is the proper
descriptive for what we have seen, we Americans are in even worse
trouble than we thought.
If we Americans continue to place such emphasis on technology that
we lose sight of the basics of survival in battle, then considering
a possible conflict with a foe such as China becomes unthinkable. We
have already seen that our total reliance on technology such as spy
satellites to replace on the ground, human spies has placed us in
the position of a having a $40 billion per year CIA intelligence
organization that was completely useless in interpreting the true
war capabilities of Iraq and its potential menace to our country.
(And, the CIA will prove to be increasingly useless in the future
even considering its use of “in-house” torture and extraordinary
rendition).
Conclusion:
If we consider honestly the possibly cynical – but true – analysis
of the reasons for and the stakes in this “War on Terror” we can
better understand that the thin patina of credibility the
Administration is trying to paint on its war effort is well past the
laughable stage. Associating the word “democracy” with this war
effort is an affront to the mental awareness of even the most
retarded. However, if we associate economic and social survival with
this Administration’s war effort and the means it will use to reach
its goals, we are much better off in finding a means of personal
survival.
References:
(1)(2) Neoreality: Peak Oil and Iraq
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11213.htm
By Bill Henderson
December 5, 2005
Nolan K. Anderson is a retired engineer and a veteran of Korea who
was once a “conservative” until he found there was nothing left to
conserve. (He may be reached at nkanders@bellsouth.net ).
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