Friday, April 04, 2008

The Dragon is Furious



If you are one of those who actually believe that the insurgents and nationalist hate us because of our freedoms, don't even bother to read this. It's probably better to live in a GWB fantasy world than face the world of the Dragon.

According to a friend and reader, that's what people who work around the president and the vice president call the VPOTUS.... the dragon. At least that is what she heard Seymour Hersh say this week in SA.

"Seymour said there was nothing good to say about Iraq- a disaster. No matter when we leave, it will be a blood bath. The only thing left is for us to find a way to make the necessary reparation for all the damage. He said that Bush was an enigma to him. He makes these outrageous statements that are obviously false and then really seems to believe them, which differs greatly from a "flat out liar".

Although oil is at the top of the list for Cheney and others, Bush really believes that he can bring democracy to the middle east. Cheney is called the Dragon in some circles including some on his staff. "

As you may recall, "the dragon" was in Iraq shortly before the disastrous Basra operation. Basra, of course, is key to the Oil fields in the south.

Here is part of as good a story on the whole Basra affair as I've seen from the Asia Times:

Iran torpedoes US plans for Iraqi oil
Asia Times
By M K Bhadrakumar

In the highly competitive world of international politics, nation states very rarely miss an opportunity to crow about success stories. The opportunity comes rare, mostly by default, and seldom enduring. By any standards of showmanship, therefore, Tehran has set a new benchmark of reticence.

By all accounts, Iran played a decisive role in hammering out the peace deal among the Shi'ite factions in Iraq. A bloody week of human killing on the Tigris River ended on Sunday. Details are sketchy, however, since they must come from non-Iranian sources. Tehran keeps silent about its role. (clip)

US military commanders routinely blame the Quds for all their woes in Iraq. The fact that the representatives of Da'wa and SIIC secretly traveled to Qom under the very nose of American and British intelligence and sought Quds mediation to broker a deal conveys a huge political message. Iran signals that security considerations rather than politics or religion prevailed. But the politics of the deal are all too apparent.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was camping in Basra and personally supervising the operations against the Mahdi Army, was not in the loop about the goings-on. As for US President George W Bush, he had just spoken praising Maliki for waging a "historic and decisive" battle against the Mahdi Army, which he said was "a defining moment" in the history of a "free Iraq". Both Maliki and Bush look very foolish. (clip)

Out of the dramatic developments of the past week, several questions arise, the principal being that the Bush administration's triumphalism over the so-called Iraq "surge" strategy has become irredeemably farcical, and, two, US doublespeak has become badly exposed.

What stands out is that Washington promoted the latest round of violence in Basra, whereas Iran cried halt to it. The awesome influence of Tehran has become all too apparent. How does Bush come to terms with it?

What has happened is essentially that Iran has frustrated the joint US-British objective of gaining control of Basra, without which the strategy of establishing control over the fabulous oil fields of southern Iraq will not work. Control of Basra is a pre-requisite before American oil majors make their multi-billion investments to kick start large-scale oil production in Iraq. Iraq's Southern Oil Company is headquartered in Basra.

Highly strategic installations are concentrated in the region, such as pipeline networks, pumping stations, refineries and loading terminals. The American oil majors will insist on fastening these installations. The game plan for control of Basra now needs to be reworked.

The idea was to take Basra in hand now so that the Sadrists would be thwarted from taking over the local administration in elections in October - in other words, to ensure the political underpinning for Basra.

All indications are that the Sadrists are riding a huge wave of popular support. They have caught the imagination of the poor, downtrodden, dispossessed masses in the majority Shi'ite community. They are hard to replace in democratic elections.

The sense of frustration in Washington and London must be very deep that Basra is not yet fastened. Time is running out for Bush to make sure that his successor in the White House inherits an irreversible process in the US's Iraq policy.

Bush hasn't yet spoken. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates put on a brave face, saying first-hand information was limited, but based on that, "they [Iraqi troops] seem to have done a pretty good job". To be sure, Cheney must be furious that Tehran torpedoed the entire US strategy for Big Oil. (clip)

Besides, nothing infuriates Cheney more than when US oil interests are hit. Thus, the most critical few weeks in the decades-long US-Iran standoff may have just begun.

Last week, five former US secretaries of state who served in Democratic and Republican administrations - Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeline Albright and Colin Powell - sat at a round-table discussion in Athens and reached a consensus to urge the next US administration to open a line of dialogue with Iran. "

I would say that the diplomats know something that we don't.

And that is,


The Road to taking Iraq's oil,

Runs through Tehran.

And the Dragon is Furious



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2 Comments:

Blogger katecontinued said...

Fantastic post. Oh, how wonderful it would be to have US press instead of the corporate crap that I think of as 'spews' programs.

8:53 AM  
Blogger oZ said...

thanks Kate. I've been reading your site lately. nice work. check it out.. .http://make-a-greenplan.blogspot.com/

9:45 PM  

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