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Originally posted by Silver Shadow
This is hilarious.
The mighty US military invaded Iraq, a broken down little sand pit, that was already totally destroyed militarily by the fifty combined counties of the UNITED NATIONS that squashed Iraq flat very quickly in Gulf War One.
So the mighty US went back into Iraq for Gulf War Two aided only by Britain, with 160,000 battle troops and all the latest technology and weaponry to fight a few civilian insurgent survivors.
These insurgents, not even a proper military, with no air force, no heavy equipment, no satellite technology has totally held the entire US military at bay for SEVEN YEARS.
Originally posted by Nomad451
Well, I have to honestly admit I see a lot of "dark clouds" but not just on the US-China front, but everywhere.
I know war is hyped up a lot on ATS, but can we honestly deny any longer that our world is traveling down a VERY dangerous path at the moment?
We have this issue with the Chinese and relations are deteriorating pretty quickly..
We have the Iranian nuclear issue very probably and seemingly coming to a head after so long, with a final push for sanctions and the build up of arms in the gulf to "defend" against Iranian missile attacks?
C'mon, Iran haven't made a first strike EVER as far as I know... Why is the US certain enough that Iran will lash out and attack gulf countries and Israel? Could it be perhaps the Obama admin KNOWS a first strike on Iran is coming soon, and thats where the Iranian attack will come from? I think so.
Israel and Hezbollah, Iran and Syria... News stories coming out now of very high tensions along the Israel border and the high probability of a war breaking out very soon.
I believe 2010 is shaping up to be the year it all happens
www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)
Originally posted by mmiichael
Saddam Hussein flagrantly abused these agreements and was selling oil under the table at deep discount to German,y France, and Russia. He was exchanging for weapons. He was also engaging in an illegal biological weapons program.
One week before the US and and affiliates went back in a Russian convoy hastily transferred the forbidden material to Syria, where it may still be today.
The myth has become embedded the US invaded Iraq just for it's oil.
It is endlessly cheaper to negotiate a preferred price than to go in and take over a country. This is, in fact, what France, Germany, Russia and China were already doing.
Note instead of sending in handlers, the Iraqis were given an opportunity to set up their own democratic government and elect their own leaders.
As it turns out, the Iraqi government is not particularly sympathetic to the US and it's Shiite majority regime is aligning itself with Iran.
Oil contracts are being put into the marketplace and the US has been outbid.
So much for Mean Old USA invaded poor innocent Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
The names on the politically explosive list are French, Russian, Chinese, Canadian and Japanese; if Duelfer had had his way, U.S. companies and individuals would have been included, too.
But he was overruled by CIA lawyers. The report instead lists some voucher recipients only as "U.S. person" and "U.S. company," explaining in a footnote that disclosure was barred by the 1974 Privacy Act and "other applicable law."
The deal was legal, the Post said, and they showed how U.S. firms use foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures to avoid doing business with Baghdad. The practice is not a violation of U.S. law and falls within the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.
The Post said U.N. records showed that the dealings were more extensive than originally reported and than Cheney had acknowledged, however.
According to the report, the Halliburton subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold material to Baghdad through French affiliates. The sales lasted from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000. Cheney resigned from Halliburton in August.
The report presented Monday indicates that American imports of Iraqi oil helped finance about 52 percent of clandestine deals carried out illegally under the oil-for-food program at the time when Iraq was under United Nations sanctions.
It looked at kickback allegations against a Texas company, Bayoil USA, which was indicted in the investigation of the $67 billion oil-for-food program. The program allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods for its people living under United Nations sanctions.
Bayoil executives pleaded not guilty last month to charges the company was part of a scheme to pay millions of dollars in kickbacks to Mr. Hussein in exchange for oil deals.
Records kept by the Iraqi Oil Ministry's State Oil Marketing Organization showed that Iraq collected about $228 million in surcharges from September 2000 to September 2002, the report said.
It contends that Bayoil ''facilitated'' about $37 million in illegal surcharges to Mr. Hussein and then engaged in lobbying efforts to influence the price of Iraqi oil and to oppose American efforts to stop the surcharges.
A Texas oil executive, his two companies and two foreign associates were indicted Thursday on charges that they illegally paid millions of dollars to Iraqi officials in exchange for lucrative deals to buy discounted oil from the government of Saddam Hussein
You wouldn't know that from the modest coverage of this most interesting report. Most of the reporting has focused on the fact that many of the contracts went to French and Russian companies. The Washington Post's take was typical: "most of those allegedly receiving rewards were not Americans. The preponderance of lucrative contracts went to French and Russian companies, on the grounds that their governments opposed the sanctions regime and favored Iraq in the U.N. Security Council."
That's technically accurate but substantially false. In a global economy, distinctions between "American" or "French" companies are essentially a joke. The Volcker report paints a picture of layer upon layer of front companies and cut-outs, off-shore subsidiaries and hastily slapped together strategic partnerships: "Iraq's preference for French companies and the limited number of recipients in France for Iraqi crude oil led certain companies to pass themselves off ... as being French-based." The report cites a 1998 letter from a French official to an Iraqi official based in Paris, in which he expressed "his concerns and his government's concerns ... regarding the increase in British and American companies as well as others who exploit the decision of the Iraqi leadership in providing priority to conducting business with French companies by signing contracts with Iraq through their offices in France."
If the oil-for food program was bilked, it went on under the watchful eye of the world's main powers, especially the U.S. "Whatever critics may say, 'the UN bureaucracy' did not design a program that handed over cash to Saddam Hussein," Joy Gordon wrote in Harper's magazine last month. "The 15 members of the Security Council--of which the United States was by far the most influential--determined how income from oil proceeds would be handled, and what the funds could be used for."
For example, the GAO report charges that the Iraqi government smuggled $6 billion worth of oil out of Iraq--under the oil-for-food program administrators' watch. But the UN Multinational Interception Force charged with preventing smuggling on the seas is made up almost exclusively of U.S. ships--and is under the command of the U.S.'s Fifth Fleet.
In cases of overland smuggling to Jordan and Turkey, all that these U.S. allies had to do was ask. In 1991, Bush Sr.'s administration gave Jordan an exemption allowing it to import Iraqi oil in violation of the sanctions.
"The corruption evident in the oil-for-food program was real, but did not originate from within the United Nations, as Norm Coleman and others are charging," former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter wrote in Britain's Independent newspaper. "Its origins are in a morally corrupt policy of economic strangulation of Iraq implemented by the United States as part of an overall strategy of regime change.
Originally posted by Manouche
You only want to rely on Volcker's report and avoid all the information, plenty, that is widely available on very established media sources. Facts were widely distorted for the american public with the help of this report. On purpose with a clear goal.
Originally posted by Alien Mind
reply to post by Silver Shadow
The way you sound it would seem you wish saddam was still here. Lets not forget that saddam murdered thousands if not millions of his OWN people, but people seem to don't care about that since he's not Hilter.
Originally posted by Silver Shadow
Originally posted by Alien Mind
reply to post by Silver Shadow
The way you sound it would seem you wish saddam was still here. Lets not forget that saddam murdered thousands if not millions of his OWN people, but people seem to don't care about that since he's not Hilter.
You mean like Waco, and Ruby Ridge ?
Yes no American would ever kill another American.
The US government would never build FEMA concentration camps.
The US government is NOT planning for martial law.
Morgellons and chem trails do not exist in America.
No American would ever even think of harming another American.
Trust in your US government, they can do no wrong.
Americans are stocking up on assault weapons and high performance ammunition for protection................. against other peace loving Americans.
If you read all of my post, what I actually said was Saddam was a BAD GUY that beat the evil US empire and freed up the world trade in oil.
International world trade is now more honest and free, the US has been beaten and broken, and Saddam did it..........
Never again will an American President be able to threaten military strike against any other nation that refuses to use US dollars in international trade.
Nations can now trade with each other in any currency they choose, without having a US carrier battle fleet attack their country, or being invaded and occupied by the US military.
That is true freedom, and thanks to Saddam that is the big change his actions against America have brought about.
While the world is gaining more freedom, Americans are getting less.
Think about that.................
[edit on 8/2/2010 by Silver Shadow]
Originally posted by Silver Shadow
But of course the US military has now killed 1.5 million+ Iraqis according to many reliable international sources. All of them called insurgents.
And let's not forget the horrors of Abu Gharib, Gitmo and rendition.
But of course the US only kills and tortures terrorists, which makes Americans heroes. Saddam killed and tortured ordinary Iraqi citizens which is very very bad.
When the US government declares martial law, and starts killing and torturing American citizens, you will ALL be insurgents.
Insurrection is another word for civil war. So you will all be insurgents, and get the same treatment as Iraqi civilians.
When a US marine kicks you to death, rapes you, connects up the wires to you, or blows your brains out, he will be fighting a noble war against terror.
Americans are all heroes. The US government can do no wrong.
Only foreign leaders like Saddam are bad guys.
Anyhow, as you will very soon discover all this for yourself, when the US economy implodes. and your Commander in chief reading his teleprompter, calls out the military to stop all the looting and rioting.
Remember the US military is NEVER WRONG, you deserved to die..