Mr. Lobe discussed and dismissed the role of Big Oil, but he does not consider (for want of a good term) peripheral oil. I mean companies that are ancillary to the big oil companies, such as Halliburton and Bechtel. These are companies whose economic fortunes are heavily tied to the big extraction and refining industries. Halliburton made a fortune in Iraq and nearly all with no-bid contracts. Mr. Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton just before becoming vice president. This cannot be ignored.
Iraq: Five Years After the Conquest
Another very astute and insightful article by Mr. Raimondo. The only disagreement I have with it concerns his statement “The reality is that this was a horrible mistake from the very beginning, and yet many….” In my opinion, there was no mistake made by Bush and minions; I feel they knew there would be a disintegration of Iraq and in fact they wanted and prepared for that outcome. The Bushites achieved their goal of creating the chaos in Iraq – a result that will justify an American presence in that country for decades to come. No politician, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, etc., will implement a significant withdrawal of American forces from Iraq .
~ Charles Broman, Las Cruces, N.M.
Guilt by association? I agree with you on your take on the Ron Paul/white supremacist idiocy; however, Barack Obama’s relationship with the good reverend went way beyond a campaign donation.
Obama attended Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years – that’s 20 years! If Obama didn’t agree with the racist hate-mongering sermons of Rev. Wright, then why did Obama keep attending that church for 20 years? Why did Obama have Wright marry him to his wife, Michelle? Why did Obama have Wright baptize his children? Why did Obama tithe thousands of dollars to Wright’s church? Why did Obama make Rev. Wright a core member of the Obama campaign?
Your “guilt by association” argument doesn’t fly. Obama wasn’t just “associated” with Rev. Wright, he considered Wright to be a member of the family, and Obama has stated as much. And before you dismiss me as some warmongering neocon, I don’t like the war any more than you. However, I still don’t want Barack Obama as our next president. Race-hustling, big-government-worshipping socialists are simply unacceptable.
~ Wade Chandler, Sacramento, Calif.
I agree that it is inconsistent to root for Obama if one is not ready to vote for Obama. What sense does the whole election campaign make if all people end up just talking and not acting? We sit at home on election day and we practice our democratic rights? Justin, this does not make any sense.
I am not American. I live in Europe and cannot vote for a U.S. president, but the truth is, for the first time in many years (actually, since the first bombings in the Balkans, where I come from – that includes the “Billary times”) I actually want to hear about the American elections and about American politics in general. I am willing to hear about America again, because I see there is a person running for president that does not make me yawn in the very first minute by uttering the usual dishonest political promises and platitudes, a person that thinks big and feels right in considering the political impact of America on the rest of the world and its consequences for ordinary people everywhere, a person that actually knows something about other cultures and is raised as a child of two different cultures, a person who has black and white, rich and poor, and therefore knows something about life and what it takes to bring the opposing ends together. In view of all that, a person who gives some hope to bring America back the values that can lead it into the future – a liberal, multicultural, and multiethnic community, a melting pot, in which new ideas are born, encouraged, and developed. Only in this way the U.S. could resist political, social, and moral decay, and live up to the standard of similar processes of ethnic fusion in Europe. However you call it, this is the unavoidable future, and the question is only if you are ready to meet that future prepared or unprepared, changed or unchanged, living with the ideas of the present or past?
Give your country a chance. Who else can do it, and who else should vote?
