Antiwar.com Blog

They flew together, they fought together, now the five rest together in a single flag-draped coffin…in peace at Arlington.

Although “bringing democracy” to Iraq, Syria and Iran and “protecting the world from terrorists and WMD” have been the stated goals of the Bush Administration, it becomes more apparent that one of the main unstated goals is control of the Persian Gulf’s oil production — and thereby control of growing Asian economies such as those of China and India, as well as Japan and S. Korea, which now consume 90% of Middle Eastern oil exports. The use of oil embargoes to exert control over other nations’ policies can have disastrous effects, as did the embargo against Japan, dependent upon the United States for 80% of its oil in 1941, which led to war. From The Daily Star (Lebanon), a fast primer on the changing face of Mideast oil politics by Youssef F. Ibrahim of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group. He previously served as senior Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and Energy Editor of the Wall Street Journal for 26 years.

Once upon a time there were four US oil companies that controlled the world of oil. Their names were Exxon, Mobil, Chevron and Texaco. The world of oil then was focused. These four found the oil, pumped it, and set its price to the world…Over the past 40 years, however, the world of oil has been turned upside down, and the rules have changed. The most important of these changes is that American oil companies no longer constitute the entirety of what we call “Big Oil.”

The other big change is that the US is no longer the most important client in need of oil. The new giant consumer of oil is China ­ a burgeoning economic superpower and the fastest growing market on earth, with over a billion consumers. Then there is India, another major oil customer that is growing fast. In fact, statistics show that 90 percent of the oil produced from the Gulf region that includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, among others, is going to Asia, not America.
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Andrew Sullivan, the Boadicea of the War Party, has Antiwar.com in his sights:

“FIFTH COLUMN WATCH: An Anti-War.com writer pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges. He was planning to fight for ‘Muslim causes.’”

This “Antiwar.com writer,” Ismail Royer, who wrote one very good piece for us a couple of years ago, was charged with violating the Neutrality Act – which forbids Americans from taking up arms against countries with which we are not at war — because he and his friends wanted to go fight in Kashmir for an obscure anti-Indian guerrilla group. At no time did he take up arms against America or Americans. As Tim Cavanaugh pointed out in Reason last year:

“There are various questions to be raised about the indictments. (Among them: Is paintball a fitting substitute for Basic Training?) The invocation of the archaic Neutrality Act—most of the charges involve actions taken before the LET was named as a terrorist group—has inspired tendentious but not inapt comparisons to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the French Foreign Legion.

“For me, the real mystery is the involvement of Ismail (Randall Todd) Royer, whose prior writings give little indication that he was a jihadist. Among his articles: A plea to respect religion in the public square. A call for détente between Islam and the West. An article urging Muslims to avoid wallowing in victimization. All outspoken articles, but pretty far from militancy. Royer is a co-editor of ATrueWord.com, a site that aims ‘to actively engage the non-Muslim world in a constructive and honest dialogue of ideas.’”

Sullivan is a despicable fraud, and so is the continuing campaign to link this website with “terrorist” activity: the ex-Trotskyite-turned-Muslim nutball cultist Stephen Schwartz has also tried to link me personally with Royer:

“The role of Raimondo in this maneuver remains extremely interesting. Raimondo has inexhaustibly assailed me because, like Royer, I have taken an Islamic name, although unlike Royer, I have never used it for deceptive purposes. Royer employed Raimondo’s propaganda as a fig-leaf to cover his own attempt at intimidation…. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and others have similarly recycled Raimondo.”

I have never met Royer, nor never even sent him so much as an email, yet in the fantasy world of Schwartz and Sullivan, I’m part of a grand conspiracy, a “fifth column” in secret communication with Osama bin Laden! They would like nothing better than to see Antiwar.com shut down, and me behind bars, like Ismail Royer. What’s frightening – not to me, personally, but on account of the realization that we’ve gone this far down the road to serfdom – is that they have the legal “tools” to do it in the form of the “Patriot” Act and its successors. The new totalitarians know they can’t win the battle of ideas, but they’re hoping they won’t have to: Sullivan and the pathetic Schwartz actually think we can be intimidated, or else forced to shut up.

Schwartz is so well-known as a nutball that even the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies – the subject, interestingly enough, of Royers’ piece for us – dropped him like a hot potato. As for Andy “Muscle Glutes” Sullivan — I’ll be damned in hell before I’ll be intimidated by this slimey limey. Sullivan gives new meaning to the phrase size queen: he only tells really BIG lies.

Israel warned Syria on Tuesday that it can’t use Hizbullah as its proxy in a war against Israel and get away with it.

Hahahahahaha…….aaaaahhhhhahahaha!

Typical Israeli tactics:
Hizbullah scores direct hit on Israeli bulldozer (poetic justice?) near Lebanese border.

Next day, Israel admits the soldier was INSIDE Lebanon.

Then today, Israeli fighter jets strike south Lebanon in retaliation.

"We deviated [from standard procedure] by going into Lebanon," Reuters reported Brigadier General Yair Golan as saying.

"From their [Hizbullah’s] standpoint [the attack] is legitimate, although not from ours," Brig Gen Golan said. "It is very serious and an escalation … it is a provocation by Hizbullah."

In other words, according to the Brig Gen, it doesn’t matter what us Jews do to wrong you, just don’t defend yourself or you’re evil and a provocateur, you genocidal ANTI-SEMITE!!!*spittle flecks*

Yes, I’m aware the US did this on a larger and slower scale with Iraq. And every other country and war in history. But Israel does this every second of every day, resulting in daily mini-wars like this one.

It’s just another demonstration of the mindboggling audacity with which Israel operates.

Yet another recent case is the trashing of an art exhibit in Sweden by the Israeli ambassador to that country. It was a pool of red water symbolizing blood, and floating on the water was a small boat with a picture of the female bomber who killed 19 at a restaurant in Haifa. The ambassador walked in, unplugged the lights, and hurled one of them into the water, and walked away. Sharon, of course, praises him, for his unilateral imposition of his personal morality on this Swedish museum.

Nevermind that the exhibit is by an Israeli artist. Nevermind that it was not
glorifying the bomber (the good ambassador refused to read the accompanying text).You’re ruining the spectacle!

The exhibit was set up again and is still available to view. The Israeli ambassador is absolutely dumbfounded that the Swedish government has not taken down the work. If he, a Jew, thinks it’s evil, then it simply must be! But Sweden has this slight problem, you see, they rarely censor their media. Israel simply can’t understand why the Swedish government doesn’t just smash it up. After all, "it is impossible to justify … this exhibit in the name of freedom of expression." Smash it up and bulldoze the artist’s home! It’s what Israel would do!

But hey, it’s all good. At least the landlord is evicting Stockholm’s Israeli Embassy.