Biden's pathetically small nod to reality won't end the war

[yurbud]

Many anti-war blogs and websites are praising Sen. Joe Biden for asking the ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, whether there was more al Qaeda in Iraq or Afghanistan, and therefore which location is it more important to eliminate them. Crocker was forced to acknowledge that 2+2=4, that al Qaeda is more concentrated on the Afghan Pakistan border.

Big fucking deal.

What a pathetic, pyrrhic victory.

Until he and other Democratic "leaders" in Congress hits big oil’s role in pushing for war & Iraq Oil Theft Law, he is just another worthless hack, pointing out an internal flaw in the Bush propaganda that any fifth grader with decent short term memory could have identified.

Biden is pushing for the division of Iraq on ethnic lines, something the vast majority of Iraqis don’t want, and when given a chance to attack the hydrocarbon law Bush is forcing on the Iraqis that gives 88% of their oil income to big oil companies, http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/01/sen-reid-dodges-iraq-oil-privatization.html">Biden either feigned ignorance or actually believed the talking points of the Bushies about the oil law that he mindlessly repeated, about the oil law dividing revenue between ethnic groups, which in reality is only a scant few lines in a document tens of pages long.

Iraqis are not fooled by this bullshit. Even the Bush-approved Iraqi parliament is afraid to pass the Hydrocarbon Law because they know they could never walk freely among Iraqis if they did. http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2008/01/big-oil-tries-to-bribe-iraqis-to-pass.html">Big oil has gone to the extent of trying to BRIBE Iraqi PMs to pass the law and they still won't do it.

Despite the news blackout of how big oil lobbied for and plans to profit from the Iraq war, http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/02/zogby-poll-70-say-iraqs-oil-factor-in.htmlmost Americans know the war is about oil]. Our elected representatives insult our intelligence when they keep debating the war in terms of fighting terrorism and spreading democracy, neither of which are helped by killing a million Iraqis and thousands of our troops.

To their credit, the http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/09/uk-over-100-mps-demand-british-govt.html">British parliament has had an open debate about the role big oil has played and is playing in the Iraq War.[br />
It is a stain on our democracy that no such debate has occurred here, and that we are left applauding when a piece of moral filth like Joe Biden points out a mistake the equivalent of saying Santa Claus lives at the South Pole instead of the North.
By making token efforts at criticizing the war without pulling the pants down on the true motives, Democrats allow the war costing so many of our tax dollars and lives will continue.

[Muttocracy]

1. So other than trashing Biden, what's your plan for Iraq? nt

[yurbud]

2. respect Iraqi public opinion, let them control their own oil...

Move our troops out of populated areas immediately.

If we really cared about foreign fighters in Iraq, we would seal the border with Saudi where most come from, and pressure the Saudis to stop the flow on their side.

[Muttocracy]

3. which "them" to control the oil

You don't want the country divided into separate states in a federal system. So you want majority rule for the whole country, and thus the Shiites control oil revenue?

[yurbud]

4. oil companies want to leave 12% of oil income for Iraqis to divide between themselves

a deal Saudi, Kuwait, or Iran would never take without a gun to their head.

So which do you think is a bigger deal, how much the oil companies take, or how they Iraqis divide up the scraps the oil companies leave behind?

That crap about dividing the revenues between ethnic groups is a White House talking point. Neither Biden nor any other Democrat are doing us a favor when they parrot that line of shit.

[Muttocracy]

5. You said "let them control their own oil" so that's what I'm asking about

Who do you mean by "them". Or maybe you don't care who it is? I'm just trying to understand your argument and wasn't sure if you meant a particular group, or the Iraqi government, or whoever can grab control in Iraq.

[yurbud]

7. which question leads to the killing of our troops?

[Muttocracy]

8. You still didn't answer my question of who you think should control the oil

I don't think you actually want to have a conversation about this, or at best we're talking past one another.

[yurbud]

9. that is a question the Iraqis should decide for themselves not us for them. That's democracy

which theoretically we are trying to give them.

Even a lot of relatively good ideas, like establishing an Alaska like trust fund that Hillary has mentioned before are not for us to decide.

Essentially, the best thing we could do for the Iraqis is stop micromanaging, particularly in areas where it is serving other interests than the Iraqis own.

If you read the Basra oil workers union website you would see that Iraqis do have reasonable opinions on these things and they are hardly the monkeys who have just evolved out of the trees that Bush and even corporate Democrats make them out to be.

[LSK]

6. nothing will really change until January 21, 2009

All of this stuff is a dog and pony show.