Thanks Malcolm and Pete,
for straightening me out on the Australian political situation, i
obviously had a onesided impression of the (pre-)election period.
Malcolm i concur with your overall analysis of the world political
and economical landscape, the prospect seems quite grim. It seems
the oil markets have gone mad much urlier than i expected; banks, financial
institutions and large private investors are now buying oil
too: it all has become a great speculation game, driving up the price
much faster .... do i hear 100 USD a barrel, anyone ??
I am still not convinced that opening up another front (Iran) will bring
any new stragetic advantage in the war on terror or the pacification
of the Middle East. Already now the US have more than their hands
full with the guerrillas in Iraq, which is getting more popular in the
Arab world by the day. In fact the whole strategy of training and let
the Iraqis take over the situation under US control is falling apart,
because of the deep and still rising distrust on both sides, the US
command afraid of infiltration, now openly talks about the fear of
"sleeping with the enemy". How long can this last ?
To invade Iran you'll need at least an army of 500.000 and the US
can't supply that at the moment, so do you think that Howard will
send in a 150.000 and Blair too ? And further a conventional land-
based attack on Iran will mean some real heavy fighting and losses,
because the Iranian amry is well equiped with modern Russian air
and battlefield missiles.
Nuking Iran is self-defeating for the US, because Iran will surely
retaliate with a massive blow on the US forces in Iraq, probably
destroy the whole US fleet in the Gulf, bomb the Saudi oil fields
and start a tactic of multiple 'terrorists' attacks on US interest all
around the globe.
To think that the US, or the West, could dominate or should guide
the socio-political emancipation and the economical development
processes of the arab/muslim world, is a mistake of gigantic historical
proportions. If the West truely and honestly wants the integration of
the arab/muslim regions into the modern world-system, we should
empower them, strenghten their identity and independence and above
all give them the support and tools to solve their own problems. But
no, we arrogantly think we should fix that for them: we invade them
to bring democracy, privatize their economies, write their curricula,
train their judges and police, commercialize their media and so on,
because we think we know better, because we think we are better ....
yeh .... pride goes before the fall.
yours,
Jan
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
for straightening me out on the Australian political situation, i
obviously had a onesided impression of the (pre-)election period.
Malcolm i concur with your overall analysis of the world political
and economical landscape, the prospect seems quite grim. It seems
the oil markets have gone mad much urlier than i expected; banks, financial
institutions and large private investors are now buying oil
too: it all has become a great speculation game, driving up the price
much faster .... do i hear 100 USD a barrel, anyone ??
I am still not convinced that opening up another front (Iran) will bring
any new stragetic advantage in the war on terror or the pacification
of the Middle East. Already now the US have more than their hands
full with the guerrillas in Iraq, which is getting more popular in the
Arab world by the day. In fact the whole strategy of training and let
the Iraqis take over the situation under US control is falling apart,
because of the deep and still rising distrust on both sides, the US
command afraid of infiltration, now openly talks about the fear of
"sleeping with the enemy". How long can this last ?
To invade Iran you'll need at least an army of 500.000 and the US
can't supply that at the moment, so do you think that Howard will
send in a 150.000 and Blair too ? And further a conventional land-
based attack on Iran will mean some real heavy fighting and losses,
because the Iranian amry is well equiped with modern Russian air
and battlefield missiles.
Nuking Iran is self-defeating for the US, because Iran will surely
retaliate with a massive blow on the US forces in Iraq, probably
destroy the whole US fleet in the Gulf, bomb the Saudi oil fields
and start a tactic of multiple 'terrorists' attacks on US interest all
around the globe.
To think that the US, or the West, could dominate or should guide
the socio-political emancipation and the economical development
processes of the arab/muslim world, is a mistake of gigantic historical
proportions. If the West truely and honestly wants the integration of
the arab/muslim regions into the modern world-system, we should
empower them, strenghten their identity and independence and above
all give them the support and tools to solve their own problems. But
no, we arrogantly think we should fix that for them: we invade them
to bring democracy, privatize their economies, write their curricula,
train their judges and police, commercialize their media and so on,
because we think we know better, because we think we are better ....
yeh .... pride goes before the fall.
yours,
Jan
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---