Question: Is it about the oil?

[burn the bush]

I'm pretty new to politics. I have been overwelmed with all of the info I have been reading. I've been pretty caught up in the vote fraud stuff and wrote the emails, signed the petitions, and went to DC on the 6th to protest. (my first protest, and I loved it
Anyway, my mind is starting to digest just how corrupt our govt is. I haven't been able to read up on and understand all of it and I just want the DUers to tell me....Is it for the oil? I understand the basics of the peak oil situation. I guess I just want the general consensus of the DUers. Is the peak oil situation, what this is all about? This being the war, the plans for more war, the lying, the media control,all of it. Maybe i should do a poll?

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Peak Oil & Petrodollar Hegemony.

Yup.

[soleft]

2. Oil for some, second coming for others

[Nordmadr]

3. Oil and all Energy

It is going to get worse before it gets better. You can take that to the bank.

http://www.peakoil.com/index.html

Olaf

[burn the bush]

8. But do you think the bushbots are just going along with the end times

stuff to keep the pseudo-christians (the ones who believe in killing for Christ) on board or are the pugs in office really working towards bringing on the second coming?

[charlie]

18. More like

the neocon dream of steamrolling the mideast and Korea dovetails nicely with fundie visions of Apocalypse Real Soon Now. A malignant dance of convenience for entirely different reasons.

[soleft]

23. Cheney using Bush Religious delusion to get the oil

Rove just doing it for the power lust

[AG78]

4. Part of it

Large part of it. But it's not just oil. Look up "The Grand Chessboard". Look up Smedley Butler.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. And look up PNAC

http://www.newamericancentury.org/
http://www.pnac.info/

[AG78]

9. Them too

And all the other think tanks those same people are involved with.

http://www.defenddemocracy.org/biographies/biographies.htm
http://www.fightingterror.org/members/index.cfm
http://www.usacc.org/contents.php?cid=2
http://www.aei.org/scholars/filter.all/scholar_byname.asp
http://www.peaceinchechnya.org/about_members.htm

There are others as well. The empire movement has a large head start. Military bases al around the planet, and multi-national corporations with human rights that are stronger than the nation state today.

Not sure if we can catch up, but it's about the only thing worth trying.

[naturalselection]

6. I am relatively new to politics as well

but through DU my eyes have been opened to different sides to every story.
I am reading Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival" right now and about half way through it.
I believe it is most definately about the oil and the economic welfare of a select few.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. It's not JUST about the oil.

You see, there's an entire industry dubbed the "military-industrial complex". The way it works is that they create all of the supplies and expensive equipment needed for fighting wars. These companies include Halliburton and Raytheon, whom just so happen to fund Republicans. Also added into that mix are companies like General Electric, which also happens to own National Broadcasting Company, AKA NBC. So you can clearly see their motivation for helping Bush pitch the war.

So there's a direct corolation between war and money for these people. They need war to make profits. They need Bush to make war. Bush needs them to get into office and stay there.

[Dr.Phool]

10. Read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins

He was involved in the whole thing for 30 years. A lot of eye-opening facts in there. It's a fairly new release, and not in a lot of bookstores, but Amazon has it.

I first heard him being interviewed by Amy Goodman.

[propagandafreegal]

13. I just saw this yesterday in Barnes and Noble.. a blue company! nm

[AG78]

12. Yes, but go another step

"The way it works is that they create all of the supplies and expensive equipment needed for fighting wars."

They also create all the supplies and expensive equipment needed for rebuilding whatever they've destroyed. It's the perfect cycle. That's why, for as long as they can go, we'll always have an enemy. Even when they're done going around the planet democratizing every country, we'll still find an enemy somewhere. We have to; it's too lucrative not to.

[Cats Against Frist]

31. War can often kick up a slumping economy, too

which, when paired with tax cuts, can mask deeper economic problems, and kick the GDP up for the pretty of it.

And all that money does go to Raytheon & the others -- and the owner, or CEO of Raytheon, from what I hear, is a totally, whacked-out fundie of the delusional type -- so there is some intermingling on the higher levels between the God stuff & the Greed stuff.

[zacho]

11. No it was for the Bush04 campaign

Iraq was an easy target to attack, and it did not take any convincing to say Saddam was a bad man. Those masters of war wanted to strike at some weak prey, and they did. The occupation part I think is for oil. Otherwise we would have gotten out last year. The irony of it all is that America will inevitably pull out and French companies will be the ones who inherit the oil there.

[rman]

14. it is about geo-political dominance

where obviously oil is a major factor, but also locations and infrastructure of military- or economic strategic importance (canals, oil/gas pipeline routes).

the impending end of the oil age (peak oil) makes it all the more urgent.

a good source on the matter is
www.fromthewilderness.com

[moobu2]

16. Yes that's exactly right and

those forces are simply using the Christian religious rights "end times" beliefs and limitless support for Israel as a very powerful political force to carry out objectives they otherwise would find very hard to do.

[sandnsea]

20. What this one said

And securing trade in general. Sometimes it's about the gold, for example.

[Nordmadr]

29. While were posting links:

Try these for alternative news and peak oil news as well:

http://www.energybulletin.net/news.php

http://www.odac-info.org/

http://www.peakoil.net/

http://truthout.org/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

Do your own research, don't just believe what others say.

[gasperc]

15. when gas prices spike then it'll be about the oil

if we don't have alternatives by then it'll be too late and there will likely be a long period of "sacrifice" and "rationing" even though the military will likely have access to the bulk of the fuel. If some of these theories pan out we are in for a painful economic adjustment period as alternative energy sources are developed that are at or near current fuel prices or their relative level in the future.

[sarahlee]

17. Don't forget the water

It is also about control of water sources. Clean water is quickly becoming even more of a concern than peak oil.

[Nordmadr]

28. Yes, you certainly

can not exclude good clean water from it, nor any number of things really. It is a simple matter of having exceeded our natural carrying capacity as a species on this planet. Population dynamics and ecology. The signs are everywhere to be seen if people just look. There are now more people on this planet, by far, than it can sustain. Oil (energy) is simply the limiting resource that we require that is likely to be the first to cause major problems. As that domino tumbles, so shall many more. The potential for disaster that we now face without intelligent clear headed leadership is almost unfathomable. Yet we as a nation, and a world, continue to make the most bone headed decisions I can imagine. The frightening thing is, that the only LOGICAL reason I can think of to pursue the path we are on (war, resource competition)is because the governments of the world have determined that the previously viable alternatives are no longer viable. Simply not enough time to go with reducing consumption, development of alternative fuels and the associated infrastructure, etc (talk to Jimmy Carter). So in the meantime everyone grabs what they can get their hands on and bunkers down while feeding a load of bullshit excuses and assurances to the public to prevent a massive panic. Now the majority of the public, which desperately wants to believe these lies, continues to be complacent. Personally, I have reached a level of complete exasperation. I was putting alot of hope in this last election, and it was promptly "shat" upon.

I don't know where I have heard this before, but it is appropriate I think...

Deal with reality, or reality will deal with you.

But what do I know, I'm just some crazy with a tin hat.

[Bampa]

19. Started in the late 70's

Back in the late 70's, President Jimmy Carter worked toward creating new renewable energies to help us divorce ourselves from the oil dependency. That was over twenty years ago. Regan cut all of his programs in one swoop as soon as he came to power and therein sealing out our Independence and rewarding those profiting in oil and war; remember that Daddy Shrub was part of that power and the war to come.

Any time you have such a dependency on a finite resource, those that own the keys to that resource and are making the wealth will just as much want investment into competing resource squelched; at least until the end of the life cycle of that resource.

[trezic]

21. No it isn't

Oil is a an easy excuse for those too lazy to learn anything about geopolitics. It's also a convenient conspiracy theory for those who need some 'them' as the reason for impotence.

[CWebster]

22. Oh,hi there,

Oil is part of the geo-political agenda, especially when Oil men are running the show.

[BlueEyedSon]

25. Care to elaborate?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. Many people use "coincidence theories" to feel better

about the shitty world we live in. Ain't that some shit.

[Riding this Donkey]

24. It is about all of the above and much more

not excluding the (the though small idea) of *GW* wanting to avenge the threat to his fathers life. His mission just happened to dovetail in with the mission of the neocons, etc.

[ClassWarrior]

27. It's about greed and power - and oil is just...

...a highly-profitable subsidiary of that.

NGU.

[Cats Against Frist]

30. Uhhhhh -- You wanna hear Newt Gingrich admit it?

http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/gingrichmeetthepressiraqwar.wmv


Interesting thing is that Gingrich, in a "survival-of-the-fittest" subtext, makes a decent case for crushing the Middle East for oil -- the problem is, that the administration, and most Bible-toting Republicans never want to admit that they're putting the stamp of approval on mass murder so we can keep the lights on.

Some of the REEEEAALLY dumb freeps and GOP supporters are all about it though: "kill them for the oil we gotta git the oil," -- or are they the smart ones, because they're at least true to their own Darwinian nature??