Is the WH now cobbling together a reason to attack Iran, now? From the NYTimes:<br><br>[color:blue]Many of the new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and shipped in from there, United States military and intelligence officials said Friday, raising the prospect of increased foreign help for Iraqi insurgents.<br><br>American commanders say the deadlier bombs could become more common as insurgent bomb makers learn the techniques to make the weapons themselves in Iraq.<br><br>But just as troubling is that the spread of the new weapons seems to suggest a new and unusual area of cooperation between Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunnis to drive American forces out - a possibility that the commanders said they could make little sense of given the increasing violence between the sects in Iraq.</font color=blue><br><br>Hooboy.<br><br>

Several weeks ago, Arianna Huffington wrote :<br><br>"Take Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s lovefest visit to Tehran on Sunday, where he laid a wreath on the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini and hailed what he called “a new chapter in brotherly ties” between Iran and Iraq. Now, by all rights, this should have been a major story in the U.S. Here you have the leader of the new government we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars creating in Iraq making very nice with the terror-funding and nuke-building mullahs in Iran. So this is what our soldiers are putting their lives on the line for -- 1,770 killed so far -- a budding alliance between fundamentalist theocracies? (And yesterday’s news about the Iraqi constitution being based on fundamentalist Islamic principles, including curtailing women’s rights only confirms these fears) Surely that’s front page news, right? Not in America."<br><br><br><br>

In the meantime, we just keep playing footsie with Korea. <br><br>

Part of what I meant in the other post, wherever that was. "Freedom" includes the freedom to go against what the US wants. Given the historical and political realities of the region, it would be surprising if the newly empowered Iraqi Shiites had not gone off to Shiite-run Iran.<br><br>Just on CNN an hour ago was an interview with Michael Klare, author of a terrific book on Saudi Arabia called Blood and Oil. Now, mind you Klare is a professor and so a lower-case dependent, pointy-headed, liberal kook frothing at the mouth with his anti-Americanism. Nonetheless, it was interesting to hear what might happen in Saudi Arabia in the not too distant future. The new king, Abdullah, will probably be the last son of the founder of Saudi Arabia, Abd Al-Aziz bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud. One reason that generation has been on the throne for such a long time is that Al Saud had many wives, apparently at least one from each of the Bedouin tribes that populate the peninsula. Marriage was his way of garnering loyalty. A fine medieval way of doing things. The problem is that now there are a bazillion grandchildren from the offspring of all those wives, and those grandchildren have allegiance to their particular tribe as much or more than to the "royal family." Those tribes in turn have very different political perspectives, econmic interests, cultural allegiances, etc. etc. How exactly the succession will shake out when Abdullah dies will be interesting. As in the Chinese curse, may your life be interesting.<br><br>And that's not even taking into account the other 25 million Saudis. Look at the age distribution in Saudi Arabia here. Here's the US age distribution for the sake of contrast.<br><br>The estimated unemployment rate is 25%. What was it in the US during the Great Depression? Also 25%, I believe.<br><br>The politics we know, but it's interesting to see the comparative figures. Wonder where all the political tensions get expressed.<br><br>We also know that the country has something like 25% of the world's oil reserves. I have such confidence in the future!<br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by bood on 08/06/05 02:11 PM (server time).</EM></FONT></P>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>now there are a bazillion grandchildren<p><hr></blockquote><p>Thanks for the tip. I think I'm gonna open a Toys-R-Us Franchise over there. Maybe a McDonald's too! <br><br>

wow, thanks gary. i missed all that previously. what a huge story that was ignored here. damn mainstream media!<br><br>--<br>Straw-man rhetorical techniques are the practice of refuting weaker arguments than one's opponents offer. 2 "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is 2 create a position easily refuted, then attribute that position to your opponent.

[censored], Steve. They started us down a slippery slope with the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, they can't control that and NOW they appear to be saber-rattling with Iran which is 3-4 times bigger (landmass and population) and much more problematic.<br><br>HTF are we going to do ANYTHING pinned down in Iraq? We'd need a DRAFT and about 1,000,000 more men. Why? we need another 150-200,000 in Iraq if we really want to "control" it. Then figure 600-700,000 to deal with Iran... course get ready for 10 X more body bags, AND a fiscal castrophe since GW already "gave away the Farm" with all his tax cuts, and business handouts, and still runs HUGE annual deficits. With an Iranian front, figure thte deficits to go to $500-700 Billion per year. <br><br>I have to ask the SAME question I have for the past 2 years- [color:red] <br>is it really worth it to control the oil supplies in the ME ?? </font color=red><br>Why not just buy the damn stuff like 90% of the rest o f the world does?<br>With gas in Hotlanta at $2.33 per gallon and oil prices peaking last week @ $62 a barrel - the idea to take oil from Iraq and keep energy prices cheap (2001-2002 levels) is LONG GONE.<br><br>Bush's whole damned folley has back-fired and is totally FUBAR.<br>Heard on the news this AM that GW's approval levels fell to 38%.<br>that's about 28% too HIGH in my book !! <br><br>David (OFI)<br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>With gas in Hotlanta at $2.33 per gallon<p><hr></blockquote><p>Try $3.01- $3.29 in Manhattan! I am sooooooooooooo glad I got rid of my car this week.<br><br>I just hope it stays at sabre-rattling with Iran. I gotta believe/pray/hope/beg, etc. that Congress will NOT let us fall into another snake pit.<br><br>

<br>Still no surprises here. <br><br><br><br>

Damn Steve... $3 !!! man - my sympathies. Kee- rist !!<br><br>oh my son will have a FIT- he goes back to Hyde Park in 3 weeks...<br>glad he's taking his Honda Civic back and not the Previa !!<br><br>Hang in there , man.<br><br>David (OFI)<br>