When the Obvious is Obviously so Obvious it's Obvious

posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:53 AM Permalink

Shades of Fearful Leader bush's, "Bring 'em on!" and yet another sign why you cannot spell Lieberman without using the word "Lie."

From the Huffington Post in a commentary by General Wesley Clark:

After wrongly supporting George W. Bush's strategic blunder of attacking Iraq, and continuing to support Bush's failed policies after the invasion, Senator Joe Lieberman made irresponsible comments this weekend regarding military action against Iran.

On CBS's Face the Nation, Lieberman said, "If [the Iranians] don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."

This type of "tough-talk" by the Bush Administration and folks like Senator Joe Lieberman is why VoteVets.org and I collaborated to create StopIranWar.com, calling for heavy diplomatic, economic, and political action to discourage the acquisition of nuclear capabilities by the Iranian government.

Senator Lieberman's saber rattling does nothing to help dissuade Iran from aiding Shia militias in Iraq, or trying to obtain nuclear capabilities. In fact, it's highly irresponsible and counter-productive, and I urge him to stop.

This kind of rhetoric is irresponsible and only plays into the hands of President Ahmadinejad, and those who seek an excuse for military action.…

Just a couple of days ago Lieberman was on the floor of the Senate and did something I thought very fascinating: He read down a list of petroleum producing countries and the percentage of oil in reserve which they may produce for the world. The last four countries/percentages he listed were Iraq, 20%; Iran, 10%; Venezuela, 6%, and America last at 1.5%.

Lieberman then stated, "…We cannot leave our national and economic security dependent therefore on a resource that lies largely in the hands of others - including other nations that are either volatile or undemocratic or aligned against the United States."

Read in conjunction with one another, the statement by General Clark chastising Lieberman, and what seems to be Lieberman's position that war is the means by which he prefers to insure sufficient oil supplies for the country, it points out just how dire the situation is for America when you have to counsel presidents and senators from making statements obviously designed to provoke military action where none is truly required. We could just buy the oil for pennies a barrel compared to creating a horrific war for our soldiers and expending trillions of dollars fighting that war.

Both stances by Lieberman are provocative, war/fear-mongering, maladministration positions of bush/cheney, and utilizing language to enable labeling Iran and others as "terrorist regimes" which America must conquer to preserve our way of life. (Of course, it has nothing to do with oil, it's for liberating countries and installing governments that will sell 85% of their oil to American Big Oil. It's just like this new 50 year "Korea" type plan bush announced he wants for Iraq, which would not be for their freedom or their benefit, but to dominate Iraqi oil fields.)

I refuse to believe that this is a coincidence, I don't believe in coincidences, and I instead believe that Lieberman is playing the "stalking horse" for bush/cheney to provide a fig leaf of cover.

But the better informed among you know that there are two things being done here, first, when ideas like this are suddenly being addressed, "floated" to the public as it were, the decision has already been made, will be executed soon, and Lieberman is hopefully providing a diffusion of anger by putting a bipartisan face on this for bush/cheney.

The second thing obvious to the well-informed is this: There is not one shred, not an iota, not a single scintilla of proof that Iran is even attempting to develop nuclear weapons. None. Lot's of speculation, surmising, implying, and accusing, but no proof whatever that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

I agree entirely with one of the General's conclusions: "Senator Lieberman must act more responsibly and tone down his threat machine."

UPDATE: An email from DanD alerted me to the fact that a reader had noticed I inadvertently misstated which country against which there was no evidence they were producing nuclear weapons, and that I said (and spelled) Iraq instead of Iran. I apologize for my error and hope that I didn't confuse things for the lack of the correct ending letter. It also shows we have some very alert readers, which is fabulous, and I sincerely hope they will ALL hold me responsible for spelling, misuse of a word, or any of the other dumb things I am capable of saying/doing sometimes. Thank you for pointing out my error, and I have corrected it above.

Labels: Oil, war