Over the course of several boring and redundant articles, I have countered Thomas Keyes’ accusations of a Jewish/Israeli conspiracy to take over the Middle East. I’ve not really expressed my beliefs on why the U.S. invaded Iraq, I’ve simply shown, repeatedly, how Thomas’ statements are opinions, not the facts he claims they are. In truth, Thomas could be right, but he doesn’t absolutely know and offers no irrefutable proof – only conjecture and conspiracy theories. I have no problem that he has these opinions. I do think, however, that they indicate a great deal of prejudice towards Jews, since he refuses to even entertain more logical explanations that can be better supported by the evidence. But, he has the right to be prejudiced. I, too, am prejudiced – against bigots.

In his latest article, Thomas repeats his conjecture. He acknowledges that Bush described many reasons for invading Iraq, but dismisses all of them except the one he is obsessed with – Israel. In Thomas’ opinion, every reason Bush gave for invading Iraq was deception meant to obfuscate the actual reason – we invaded because Israel ordered us to.

I disagree. I’ve alluded to the actual reasons in the past, and described how the complexities of those reasons are beyond the comprehension of most Americans. Thus, I explained that the President has to simplify his explanations for the Great UnWashed, and appeal to their emotions, because the truth is not pretty. And I don’t claim to have a compete understanding either. Yes, I have a degree in political science, and did write a thesis on Iran / U.S. relations, but that was almost thirty years ago. My understanding today is based on that background, the factual events (as opposed to the media’s spin on events) that have occurred since then, history, and as always, common sense.

I begin with some basic facts:

1. Today, the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. History proves that has been the case since WWII, although the old USSR was seen as a potent rival for many years.
2. Our power derives from our economic strength. From that wealth sprang the technology to make our military the world’s strongest.
3. We have many enemies and rivals who are jealous of our power, and who seek to undermine us in any way possible. They are determined, persistent, and patient.
4. Even many of our friends are jealous of our power and would not be saddened to see us step back a notch, although they do not want us to fall far and would not want our common enemies raised by our decline. Basically, these friends would just like to take our place at the top and have us move to second. Some friends, those who are dependent on us for their economy or security, are supportive in every way.

Thus is the world political environment – viciously competitive, with alliances that blow in the wind. Each country is essentially out for itself, and what you see or hear is not always what is truly happening behind the scenes. If the U.S. expects to stay at the top, we have to watch our back while aggressively moving forward. And like the Mafia, there’s no getting out. If we were to decide that life at the top was too stressful and looked to step back, it would be viewed as a sign of weakness and the world would be on us like a pack of mad dogs, exacting their revenge for those abuses we had to inflict to stay on top.

Liberal ideology preaches a peace-and-love approach. Throw a lamb into a den of hungry lions to see the results of that strategy.

Unless we want our children and grandchildren to be persecuted, maybe working in a sweatshop sewing sneakers for the Chinese, we have to keep America on top. That is what Bush is trying to do.

What does it take for us to stay on top? A strong world economy, first and foremost. What would be the easiest and most logical way for our enemies to attack the world economy? Exploiting our dependency on oil, and the heavy U.S. debt and foreign investment.

Like it or not, alternative fuel sources or not, without reasonably priced oil, we sink. Do you think jet fighters and tanks can perform as well burning ethanol? Can our navy burn corn and sail at the same speed as the enemy? We are dependent on world trade and without military forces to protect that trade, we would be at the mercy of our enemies. That we require oil has been the case for the last 70 years or so, and throughout that time, we have supported our allies in the Middle East for that very reason. Likewise, throughout that time, our enemies have attempted to wrest control of the Middle East away, so that they could deny us reasonably priced oil.

Fact:

Which country has the largest proven oil reserves? Russia. Historically our greatest enemy, Russia has all the oil it needs. Unless we also had access to Middle Eastern oil during the Cold War, it very likely would have ended differently.

Iran was our ally during the Cold War. With Russian support, revolutionaries overthrew the Shah and we’ve had to solidify other support in the region. Israel is a staunch supporter, but only for purposes of logistics, they have no oil. Saudi Arabia supports us at the monarchy level, but its people are not so reliable. Their monarchy does look to us for help in maintaining their control, and we have to provide it despite our doubts about their true allegiance.

So, what is the threat to Saudi Arabia, and our other strong allies with oil, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates? The theocrats in Iran. With Russia behind them, it is their intent to become the dominant power in the Middle East. Obtaining nuclear capability will strengthen their position. Iran is a Shia theocracy. 60% of Iraqis are Shia. There are significant Shia populations in the other Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s goal is to unite these Shia into a Middle Eastern powerhouse. With that consolidation, they would pose an almost unstoppable threat to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE. With control of the oil reserves of those countries, that empire would literally control the world price of oil. Then, it would be a simple step to bankrupt our economy. Raise prices so much that we can’t pay our debt, and the foreign investors pull their money. We have mass layoffs and economic depression, then riots in the street because we are too spoiled to accept hardship. The mad dogs swoop in and rip us to shreds.

But, how do you explain this to Joe American? Especially when the liberal media is in favor of American becoming a socialist state and will distort everything. The average person wants to believe that goodness will prevail. They want to believe that other countries will see reason and only want to live in peace. When the liberal media offer them that perception, they lap it up. The thought of all that evil in the world is just too hard for most Americans to cope with.

And, in truth, the rest of the world could look at us and claim these actions I’ve describe make us evil. And from their perspective that is true. But who do you want sewing those sneakers, your grandchildren, or their’s? Because that is the bottom line – there are winners and losers, always have been, always will be. While democracy and capitalism have been slowly minimizing the number of losers, no alternative has been proven to work faster.

So, with these realities in mind, and 9/11 signaling that our enemies have stepped up their efforts to topple us, and that they plan to use Middle Eastern oil to do it, what should Bush have done?

The answer is, invade Iraq. Geographically and historically, Iraq is the crossroads of the Middle East. Iraq separates Iran from Saudi Arabia, and by land, from Kuwait and the UAE. Iraq has significant oil reserves that can be accessed to support our economy.

And importantly, Iraq was controlled by a madman with aspirations of an Iraqi empire and with a deep hatred of the U.S. The Saudis, Kuwaitis, UAE and the rest of the world all feel safer with Hussein gone. If we could replace Hussein with a government that was friendly to the U.S., we could be in strategic position to control the Middle East for decades and to set a formidable roadblock in front of the Iranians.

Bush and the Democrats know this to be true. If a Democrat were President, we would still have invaded Iraq. There are no Democrats calling for us to retreat from Iraq. All the politicians know that we should be in Iraq, their complaints are strictly for political purposes.

And Bush has to fight them with the same political spin. Thus, Democrats are appealing to emotional issues and Bush responds in the same way – with political "fluff" intended for easy digestion by the Great UnWashed.

Folks, it doesn’t matter who you vote for, the U.S. is not going to leave Iraq until that country is stabilized and the Iranian threat neutralized. Any politician who suggests such a thing should be dragged out in the street and shot. When you hear crazed, wild-eyed theories of Israel control of our government, just know that it is prejudice speaking.

	Web useless-knowledge.com