Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who worked for the Wall Street Journal—hardly a left-wing sentinel — has published a book stating that the chief of Iraqi intelligence told British and American spies that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. We paid the Iraqi head goon $5 million and told him to hide out in Jordan. Then the government tried to destroy an ambassador and his wife—a CIA agent—who debunked a story that Iraq was buying material for nuclear weapons from Niger. And, we forged a letter from the Iraqi chief intelligence officer stating that al Qaeda was training in Iraq. Then we attacked Iraq.
Before all this took place, Vice President Dick Cheney summoned energy company executives to meet on energy policy. The meetings were secret. They still are classified. We will never know what transpired.
But we do know, for certain, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We know, for certain, that Saddam Hussein had no connection with al Qaeda and, in fact, feared the radical Muslim terrorist group. We are told that Iraq has the second-largest supply of oil in the Middle East. The US is currently trying to negotiate military and economic agreements involving domestic energy concerns.
Now comes Russia, attacking Georgia purportedly over ethnic unrest. It so happens that strategic oil and natural gas pipelines run from Russia through Georgia.
Why did we invade Iraq? Why did Russia invade Georgia?
Vice President Cheney might be able to answer, and he will not.
But remember that oil is the nexus of our problem. It is at the core of untold bloodshed and horror. Anything that will remove us from our dependence on oil is a good thing.
Ethanol is a good thing. Wind is a good thing. So is natural gas. Hydrogen. Solar. Whatever it takes.
Art Cullen is editor of The Storm Lake (Iowa) Times, where this appeared. Email times@stormlake.com
From The Progressive Populist, Sept. 15, 2008
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