[[[here to expose ourselves]]]

Before the war, I knew Bush was from a family of oil company business men. I knew Iraq was a largely untapped oil reserve. I knew there were many (20 plus) equally ruthless dictators around the middle east (not to mention the continent of Africa) and the question surfaced in my mind why is the US seeking to save a country from this particular ruthless dictator and not other countries? I remembered the term "Communism" was used to create an us/them relationship by artificially grouping China/Russia together who were not allies. Looking closely at the suddenly increased use of the term "terrorist" I saw that people from different, dissimilar countries: Afghanistan and Iraq, were grouped into one terrifying group to strike fear and the desire for vengeance into the hearts of Americans and justify invasion of Iraq. The term "weapons of mass destruction" was coined to define what, from our side, was termed the arms race, thereby implying we were perfectly harmless in amassing huge amounts of nuclear weapons, and other large nations were justified in doing so, but somehow Iraq was dangerous in possibly developing nuclear weapons. (I thought it very humorous that Korea flew it in our face that they had "weapons of mass destruction" and we of course didn't go to war with them.) My reading of the book Taliban outlined Afghanistan's strategic position/oil pipeline potential. My reading re: Iran/Iraq war showed why Saddam Hussain needed to put up a front of strong military might to keep Iran at bay. He was afraid Iran would find out he didn't have "weapons of mass destruction." I knew Bush had barely (if at all) won the election and that he went to huge popularity immediately with his strong, militaristic, stand in Afghanistan. Keeping the country afraid and the war going stood to maintain or increase his popularity and power. Spending money on building war machines has always been a way to increase to economy artificially. First and foremost, I knew Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian and a Billionaire. He chose a career path in strategic military planning. His family was business competitors with Bush's family. I had an imae of the Saudi's I knew at USC:Wealthy, worldly, playboys when out of their country. Bin Laden's are the equivalent of the Kennedy family in the US. Osama the equivalent of the "religious right" Christians in our government-He had gotten into disfavor by reacting strongly to the Saudi King making too many concessions to the US. Saudi Arabia had to deport him, and for business reasons, maintain relations with the US. Many supported him covertly, both for his "piousness" and anti US stand. Thus the 9/11 crew were made up mostly of Saudis. Saudi Arabia is an oil partner and ally and Afghanistan one of the poorest nations on earth and they'd been weakened by 20+ years of war. If a Kennedy religious fanatic was in disfavor and ousted to Mexico and used his military skills to train Mexicans should we bomb Mexico? Wouldn't the more logical thing be to step up the CIA search for the individual and his specific group? Bombing Afghanistan was largely a vengeance war. A little, weak, country where we could parade our new military weaponry and feel in control. Iraq? Totally illogical. Most of the "terrorists" there were varied groups fighting against each other for local control. All, of course, voicing hatred for the US, symbol of decadence, wealth and lacking in the true religion. Only a few are strong or wealthy enough to rise above local power struggles and truely be a threat to us. These would be easier controlled through CIA support of opposition groups (as we have always done in the past.) Our going to war, head on, logically causes all the factions to join together to fight us. (Opposite of divide and conquer-basic military strategy.) So we are creating the joined "terrorist" groups we invented.

as well as a link to an article. I was wondering whether her ideas were true, and what the counterarguments are. ...And, I could not think of a more knowledgeable, well-spoken group of people.

I hope your lives are good.

love,
Aimee Clark