New roll-out (propaganda campaign) for war with Iran?

hi george

I miss you. I long for those rich private moments we've shared. I hope everyone is well over in georgeland.

ps

Lola and I just spent several days with dyslexia and dianne down in New Mexico (on our drive back up from texas).

It's likely that your two biggest fans over here on the left are dyslexia and myself. Do you realize what this says about you?

blatham wrote:

ps

Lola and I just spent several days with dyslexia and dianne down in New Mexico (on our drive back up from texas).

It's likely that your two biggest fans over here on the left are dyslexia and myself. Do you realize what this says about you?

That I appeal only to the prickliest and most cantankerous individuals over there???

Perhaps there is some symmetry in our mutual regard.

Three amigos.

We're fine here. Portland is a lovely little city. But, and this is a big but for me, it is far too caucasian and protestant and granola. There's a serious need for an influx of jews, italians, blacks, slavs, latinos and irish. The cops here don't swear. It takes some getting used to.

I used to opine that we could significantly improve the world if we assembled all the Anglo Saxons, Germans, and perhaps Japanese in one place and divided them equally among all nations. They could be used to run essential services like water, sewage and power distribution - leaving the Italians, Irish, French, Jews, Slavs and others just to live. It would be a better world.

I believe you are in the grip of some preconceptions about "military" men.

The regime in Iran has not gone away despite decades of hostility toward it by Washington, and despite the latter's policy of "containment." As a result, US petroleum corporations are denied significant opportunities for investment in the Iranian petroleum sector. Worse, Iran has made a big energy deal with China and is negotiating with India. As those two countries emerge as the superpowers of the 21st century, they will attempt to lock up Gulf petroleum and gas in proprietary contracts.

(Since it is already coming up in the comments, I should note that the "fungibility" (easy exchange) of oil is less important in the new environment than it used to be. US petroleum companies would like to go back to actually owning fields in the Middle East, since there are big profits to be made if you get to decide when you take it out of the ground. As Chinese and Indian competition for the increasingly scarce resource heats up, exclusive contracts will be struck. When I floated the fungibility of petroleum as a reason for which the Iraq War could not be only about oil, at a talk at Columbia's Earth Institute last year, Jeffrey Sachs surprised me by disagreeing with me. In our new environment, oil is becoming a commodity over which it really does make sense to fight for control. See below.*)

In a worst case scenario, Washington would like to retain the option of military action against Iran, so as to gain access to its resources and deny them to rivals. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, however, that option will be foreclosed. Iran may not be trying for a weapon, and if it is, it could not get one before about 2016. But if it had a nuclear weapon, it would be off limits to US attack, and its anti-American regime could not only lock up Iranian gas and oil for the rest of the century by making sweetheart deals with China. It also might begin to exercise a sway over the small energy-producing countries of the Middle East. (The oil interest would explain the mystery of why Washington just does not care that Pakistan has the Bomb; Pakistan has nothing Washington wants and so there was no need to preserve the military option in its regard.)