TO DEMOCRATIC SENATORS: Tell public war was for OIL (& not us)

[yurbud]

Faxing to all Democratic senators. Their numbers are at the bottom.

October 8, 2005

Democratic Senators
United States Senate
Washington, DC

Senator,

I was glad to see your recent letter to President Bush asking for his criteria for success in Iraq and plans to pull out, but you fell far short of what is necessary to end this illegal war that is doing far more to incite hatred of the United States than just about anything we have done before.

You know and probably knew going into this that this war had nothing to do with WMD, terrorism, or the after the fact argument about spreading democracy.

You also know that the reason for war is identical to motivation for their recent energy bill:

As the world's oil supply begins to decline, they wanted to make sure American companies control the spigot.

They don’t even want the oil to help our economy, but so the oil companies can squeeze every last drop of profit out of that declining supply.

You must say this bluntly, at the beginning of your speeches and in the headlines of your press releases until it elbows out any remaining discussion of the embarrassing lies that led us to war.

If you do not address this directly, Bush will cook up a phony war against Iran and very likely Venezuela, whose fairly elected president they tried to overthrow in a coup and recall.

Senator, the American people need at least one party that represents us rather than treat us like suckers for their scams and cannon fodder for their wars. Please do your job.

202-228-1371, 202-228-0908, 415-956-6701, 202-228-3954, 202-224-1933, 202-224-1083, 202-224-9750, 202-224-0139, 202-228-2190, 202-228-2183, 202-224-2126, 202-224-6747, 202-228-0440, 202-228-5417, 202-228-1377, 202-224-9369, 202-224-9735, 202-224-8858, 202-224-1651, 202-224-2417, 202-224-8525, 202-224-1388, 202-228-0325, 202-228-2186, 202-224-4700, 202-228-0012, 202-224-7327, 202-228-2197, 202-228-4054, 202-224-2852, 202-228-3027, 202-228-0282, 202-224-7776, 202-224-1193, 202-228-2717, 202-224-4680, 202-228-5765, 202-228-0776, 202-224-3479, 202-228-0514, 202-224-0238, 202-228-0002, 202-224-7665

[Mnemosyne]

1. This needs a

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[understandinglife]

2. Thank you!

Peace.

[stepnw1f]

3. Spot On...

Keep the ideas coming DU.

Oh, and :kick:

[frogmarch]

4. Bravo!

Great idea, great letter!

It appears to be the Democratic senators who are thinking of running for president in 08 who refuse to speak out against the war, for fear of seeming weak on defense, despite the growing number of Americans who want our troops home NOW. These senators need to wake up and smell the coffee, or some anti-war Republican like Chuck Hagel will win in 08.

[yurbud]

13. Dem Senators afraid of corporate, not public response

[mom cat]

5. Thanks... they need a nudge.

[Independent_Liberal]

6. Kick!

[unblock]

7. this has to be done carefully, as part of a comprehensive energy strategy

frankly, a LOT of americans think we SHOULD control world oil, ESPECIALLY if the world is running out. at a minimum, americans resent and fear the idea that our economy and security can be in the hands of a few arab sheiks. americans don't like the idea of being in a position to be extorted.

so the overall strategy has to be to promise to regain energy security. conservation and alternative energy has to be a part of this, but it MUST be done in a way that convinces americans that their 'way of life' will not suffer.

[yurbud]

9. the longer we wait to address this the MORE likely our way of life

will be threatened.

It is not just the oil sheiks we should be worried about extorting us--it's the oil companies.

if we really had a free market, escalationg oil and natural gas prices would lead to more use of alternative energy, but the oil cartel has their boot firming on that. Here in California, they actually paid the windmill farm in Palm Springs NOT to produce electricity.

The key is to switch to forms of energy that cannot be monopolized and bottle-necked.

This is why there is so much propaganda against wind,solar, and even biofuels. For biofuels, if you charge too much, people will just make their own, or it would be easy for a small scale producer to start up (think of a hillybilly still). For wind and solar, once you have built the plant, there's no revenue stream from fuel--it's free.

[mod mom]

8. and control of the water for the entire region. These imperialists are

are NOT on the march for freedom, but out to control resources for their own power and wealth.

[yurbud]

10. the gestures toward democracy are a sop to the locals and us

[theboz]

11. I disagree

I say it over and over, but there's no reason to believe this war is about oil. If that was all they wanted, there would be much easier ways to get it.

This war is about power, and it is about greed, but there's very little else involved. They don't actually care about oil, just the money, which they can get by bilking the American taxpayers out of billions if not trillions for simply doing nothing. They also can use it to keep the public in line, since people tend to support their government more in a time of war. It's all about the exploitation of both the American and Iraqi people for simple profit and maintaining power.

[yurbud]

12. it's not about getting US oil, but ensuring American companies profit

including the ancillary profits to the war machine.

The cost of the war pales in comparison to the trillions Iraq oil is worth.

[JoZbean]

14. I have to agree with you, theboz

I've never really been able to pinpoint what it was about the oil that didn't fit. It did but it didn't. Profit and Power. Profit and Power. Succinctly put.

[yurbud]

15. Greg Palast documented it pretty well (link)

There was disagreement about HOW to do it, but all parties seemed to agree that Saddam shouldn't be in charge of his country's oil.

http://www.gregpalast.com/iraqmeetingstimeline.html

[JoZbean]

16. I'm trying to get the link for this now, but thought you all might be

interested. I'm copying and pasting a friend's post from another board. I've asked for his link, waiting for it and will add it when I get it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is from a free independent Iraqi newspaper. Printed by Iraqis for Iraqis.

More than two years after the occupation of Iraq, mystery still surrounds the present political and economic chaos, which led to the decline of the economic sectors and infrasturcture to the point that they became worse than they were before."

" Many examples stand witness to this situation, chiefly the following:"

"1- The oil proceeds were, and still are, under the control of the occupation.... The report issued by the General Accounting Office points out that contracts, amounting to billions of dollars, were spent out of the Iraqi Development Fund, without being reviewed by any independent party. The committee affiliated to the Senates' council also stated that the 20 billion dollars spent ONE WEEK before the transfer of the authority to the Iraqis 'was described as waste, fraud and abuse'."

This is just the tip of the iceberg folks "we" have been looting the country. You won't need a blue dress to find a war crime here. Can you imagine the fear Bush has at the thought of a truly autonomous Iraqi government ????

[yurbud]

17. this is why they put off elections as long as they could