Saturday, May 03, 2003

Finally! Someone willing to publicly admit what the planet already knows. Too bad they aren't from the US.

U.S., U.K. Waged War on Iraq Because of Oil, Blair Adviser Says

The U.S. and U.K. went to war against Iraq because of the Middle East country's oil reserves, an adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Sir Jonathan Porritt, head of the Sustainable Development Commission, which advises Blair's government on ecological issues, said the prospect of winning access to Iraqi oil was ``a very large factor'' in the allies' decision to attack Iraq in March.

"I don't think the war would have happened if Iraq didn't have the second-largest oil reserves in the world,'' Porritt said in a Sky News television interview.

Opponents of the war, including some members of Blair's Labour Party, have said that the conflict was aimed at securing Iraqi reserves to benefit Western economies and oil companies. U.S. and U.K. leaders have repeatedly rejected that, saying the war began because Iraq held illegal weapons and threatened other countries.

Blair has said he wants Iraqi oil revenues to be held in a United Nations-run trust fund and spent on rebuilding Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday the U.S. may encourage Iraq to set up an oil revenue-sharing system that would distribute some proceeds from what he called the "marvelous treasure'' to Iraqi citizens.

Oil production in Iraq was halted before the U.S.-led attack that toppled President Saddam Hussein. According to UN data, the nation is losing about $55 million a day in oil revenue as the U.S., the European Union and the Iraqi people debate postwar reconstruction plans.

Porritt's commission was set up in 2000 to advise the U.K. government on making economic and business activity compatible with environmental-protection policies. The body reports directly to Blair.

This isn't the first time Porritt has criticized the U.K. government. In October 2000, he said Blair and his ministers had failed to fulfill election promises on ecological issues.


My advice to the right...don't count your elections before they're won. Bush dressed up like a real pilot, strutting around the USS Lincoln with all the REAL soldiers, will be a great, patriotic, soundbite. We'll be plagued in 2004 by pictures of him on that ship, you can bet on it. Flags waving, God Bless America blaring in the background...

But 2004 is a looong way off. So many things could go wrong for Bush in 549 days. I'm not saying it will, I'm just saying it could. So it fascinates me how vehemently the right defends him. It's like they can't even entertain the idea that Bush is less than a God. There is no room for even the slightest possibility that this could end badly for Bush before the election.

Even if I didn't think Bush was the most incompetent man to hold office since Ford, I am cynical enough to know that no man is above reproach, especially not a president.

I said all that to say this; even though I SO disagree with the pro-Bush people, even though I SO do not understand why they think the way they do, and even though I think Bush is heading for a huge fall, I have the utmost respect for their faithfulness to this president. These people will defend this man to the death. They will defend him no matter what light is shed in the coming months. They are loyal, to a fault, to their president. And I can't help but admire that kind of loyalty. As misplaced as I think it is.

Kansas @ 7:15 PM