A top Iraqi diplomat urged Arab states to “use the weapon of oil” against the United States because of its alliance with Israel, raising more questions about the Middle Eastern nation’s allegiance to the nation that freed it from a ruthless dictatorship.
The shocking statement from a democratic government in power only after the U.S. and allies ousted murderous dictator Saddam Hussein in a costly and bloody war laid bare the Middle Eastern nation’s true allegiance.
“Iraq will invite (Arab) ministers to use the weapon of oil, with the aim of asserting real pressure on the United States and whoever stands with Israel,” Qais al-Azzawy told reporters in Cairo on Friday.
[…]
The U.S. ousted Hussein, ending his bloody, 30-year reign in 2003 in the midst of a controversial and costly war. Nearly 4,500 American service members were killed and more than 32,000 wounded in a war that has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $750 billion. That figure could top $1 trillion given future health costs incurred by veterans injured in the fighting.
The oil-rich nation has by some measures the world’s third-largest reserves and, along with Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia and Libya, provides the U.S. only about 13 percent of its oil, according to the Energy Information Administration. But Arab oil producers wield tremendous influence on world prices through OPEC.
[…]
Iraq is standing with Hamas and Palestinians in the ongoing strife between them and Israel. The fighting accelerated after Israel launched its operation “Pillar of Defense” last week, aimed at stopping frequent rocket attacks that rain down from Gaza. At least 422 rockets from Gaza have been fired at Israel, whose Iron Dome defense system has intercepted 130, according to the Israel Defense Forces said. The al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas’ military arm, said on its Twitter feed that it had shot 527 projectiles at Israel in that time.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has at times been critical of the U.S., and has in recent years raised alarms over his increasingly close relationship with Iran.
The sharp words from the Iraqi diplomat came just as Iraq released a commander of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, despite assurances to U.S. it would not do so.
Florida Rep. Gus Bilirakis, (R-Fla.), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the statement shows the U.S. must stand by Israel while working toward energy independence.Which is precisely why Obama and the other “progressive” states will likely do the opposite: scapegoat Israel for higher world oil prices in order to pressure them into concessions.
The US, having kept oil exploration and drilling artificially tamped down — despite what we now know about sitting on the largest oil reserves on earth, with the technology to extract it — has had the multi-fold effect of helping drive the middle class into government dependency by way of higher priced energy and fuel (and all the products and services dependent on them); decreased productivity in the private sector while working to increase the taxes on small businesses (also a way to push more people into government dependency); and — happily — has kept the Arab states in a position to control a fungible world oil market, a fact that the leftists will use to countenance attacks on Israel.
This is by design.
69% of American Jews, then, essentially voted for a long term plan to destroy the state of Israel — itself the key to weakening US posture in the Middle East.
Never forget my ass.
As for Iraq: well, I’d normally suggest some sort of hard line posture, but we’re more likely to see taxpayer funded apologies from the US airing on Tikrit TV. Which is why I developed a back-up plan: zombie Uday and Qusay.
Even if it’s managed only through puppetry, maybe it’s time somebody strikes fear into these increasingly belligerent and demanding Arab leaders. And Lord knows Obama isn’t capable of doing it.
I attended a Philadelphia public high school in the 70’s, a school where Jews made up close to 80% of the student and teaching population. On a regular basis I attended assembly programs where movies/newsreels showing the horrors of Auschwitz and the death camps were presented. Never again! was spoken over and over again.
Why is it that I, a goyim, got it then and “get it” now, but 69% of American Jews (and from the looks of their Facebook pages, 69% of the Jews with whom I attended school) don’t?
There’s a lot of Ultra-Orthodox jews in Israel, you know. That has to be as embarrassing to right-thinking American Jews as, well, Taliban christers are to Episcopalians.
Liberated American calls on U.S. to use missiles and big fucking guns as ‘weapon’ against Arab States
This one does, anyway.
How does the world look from your spot lying on the ground, Charlie Brown? You knew Lucy was gonna whip the ball away, but you tried to kick it anyways.
When the only promise the Islamists have ever attempted to keep is their blood oath to kill Jews and destroy Israel, why do we continue to act like
friendssuckers?Am I the only one thinking that our oil refineries and drilling platforms suffering explosions, fires and shut-downs in the last few months isn’t coincidental to the goals of this administration?
Stock up on gasoline, propane and candles, pilgrams. Winter’s coming.
We made a huge mistake in Iraq. We should have destroyed them utterly, and then rebuilt. Maybe.
Instead, and especially with our re-elected wuss-in-chief, we look weak. This is what happens to the weak.
We should have kept them in tutelage until they were ready for the responsibilities of freedom.
But then, we haven’t been all that responsible of late ourselves. Have we?
In hindsight, the best thing to have done with Iraq would have been to do nothing. You can’t give democracy away, and when you try to, the intended recipients will get shit all over it.
I’m old enough (barely) to remember anti-American protests in West Germany in the 1960s, but I don’t recall the shouting coming from the Bundestag…
The problem, Slart, is that Saddam was succeeding in undermining support for sanctions in the UN, and once they were gone, he’d be free to as he pleased. Bad things would have happened regardless, if we intervened or if we did nothing.
Wait, I thought we invaded them just to steal their oil?
– “King: Petraeus Said CIA’s Talking Points Were Edited to Play Down Terrorism”
“Portions of Rice’s presentations to the public were ‘modified’ for certain wordage.”
– Still waiting for surprises. We already knew this.
– The drip, drip, drip of Benghazi.
Maybe Slart’s saying we should have taken out Saddam and then left, perhaps with a muttered, “Sorry about the mess.”
– Drippidy, drip drip.
We either need to have something resembling the British Colonial Service or…
Or leave nations and cultures alone until they threaten us. The we make the rubble bounce.
Given our present POTUS, neither will happen in the next 4 years.
…and then years later when the story started evolving, people could wear T-shirts saying, “WE SHOT FIRST!”
“Stock up on gasoline, propane and candles, pilgrams. Winter’s coming”
Vaseline too, maybe.
I would have been ok, maybe, with dropping one on Saddam. Trouble is, we had no idea where he was. So that option could only be exercised several years to a decade after we had rebuilt our Humint. Unless we got vewyvewy lucky, and that hardly ever works out.
Leigh -I bought my shotgun tonight. That was the easy decision – still can’t make up my mind what kind of handgun. Maybe I’ll just buy a couple of them and that’ll end my constant waffling. ?
Strangely, a lot of my fears have suddenly eased a bit..
Actually my scenario involves doing just what we did — up to the point of capturing and hanging Saddam Hussein.
Then we’d tell the Iraqis, “Sorry about the mess. This time try not to pick a dictator that’ll piss us off, okay?” and go home.
Tell me, Slart, in the last war we actually won, did we worry about dropping one on Hitler? Or did we simply demonstrate that attacking us meant death to everyone who didn’t stop the German / Japanese government from doing so?
Only a small mangling of Kipling:
That’s great, missfixit! I’ve forgotten what you had decided on. 12 guage shot-guns will take regular bird shot loads and magnum loads for when you need to put a hurt on intruders. They are also easily modified to hold six shots. But you didn’t hear that from me.
I love my handguns. I have a .380 that I carry since, like you, I am small. I also have access to my husband’s 9mm and .357 that hold magnum loads and .38s. You can get a .22 since the ammunition is cheap and you aren’t trying to shoot any Grizzly bears with it.
Kind of late to use oil against the US isn’t it? Europe, sure, but they are already on the “right side” aren’t they? Asia, well, I’d bet they can be pretty strongly influenced. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of everyne who said we did Iraq just to get their oil though? Not that hypocrisy slows them down at all.
SDN, as time goes by my appreciation for Kipling just keeps rising.
Drudge is now saying sheels from Egypt have hit Israel.
And so it begins.
Sheels, shells, whatever.
Royced57 has the truth of it.
Iraq was a useless expenditure of life and money.
I vote for leave them alone unless/until they interfere with us.
Sooo…don’t worry about Iran until they set off a nuke or two?
No.
That’s been a rational concern. Use what diplomatic and back-channel levers you have and when it comes to it, assuming the intel is good, let the people in the area who have the biggest problem with it handle it.
Bush’s greatest foreign policy success by far was removing Iran from the global banking system and then making it nearly impossible for them to dollarize their oil revenue.
More of that please.
Unreal how few of us saw this coming.
royced57 says November 16, 2012 at 5:44 pm
We either need to have something resembling the British Colonial Service or…
Or leave nations and cultures alone until they threaten us. The we make the rubble bounce.
The problem with the “leave em alone until they threaten us” revisionism is that UN sanctions were enforced by whom, deployed from where, which pissed of who else, until he did what.
[…] the Fruit of Suicidal Idiocy Posted on November 17, 2012 7:40 am by Bill Quick “Liberated Iraq calls on Arab states to use oil as ‘weapon’ against U.S.” | … A top Iraqi diplomat urged Arab states to “use the weapon of oil” against the United […]
BO’s telling the world that we’re done and over in the Middle East. Iran is just waiting for us to get going so that they can move in and eat the rest of the region alive.
So, as Iraq’s “friend” BO prepares to dump her, she needs to make some new friends fast.
When you dump your BFF, you really can’t bitch about who they start hooking up with.
Unless you’re a stalker.
“That has to be as embarrassing to right-thinking American Jews as, well, Taliban christers are to Episcopalians.”
1. – I’m an atheist/agnostic, so save the “stupid Creationist” response.
2. – Einstein, Planck, Mendel, Kelvin, Bacon, Faraday, Boyle, Newton, Pascal, Descartes, Galileo – all religious, all believed in a god. But you rudely assert that it’s not only untrue, but laughably, ludicrously untrue? Which directly implies that these rather somewhat brilliant men were your intellectual inferiors, right?
Beware of people who are very, very sure of themselves. Chances are they’re pedophiles, or maybe even philatelists.
– – – –
“ maybe it’s time somebody strikes fear into these increasingly belligerent and demanding Arab leaders. And Lord knows Obama isn’t capable of doing it.”
In the face of this apparent unification of the Arab world, the obvious course for anyone concerned with the future peace and prosperity of the USA must involve the pursuit of energy independence, maintenance of our military dominance, the cementing of long-term alliances in the region, and working towards strengthening and broadening our national economy.
So, as expected, we see that BO is working hard to shut down our entire energy infrastructure and industry, cripple and render impotent our military forces, alienate our very good friends, annoy our acquaintances, orally service the recti of our enemies, and make 51% of the our voters dependent upon the Machine.
I bet that Mayor Daly, right at this moment, is peering down at BO with a warm and loving smile on his face, saying to himself “the Little One learned well.”
For one thing, bobby b, Jeff himself is an agnostic although Jewish by birth. I have never read him calling anyone a stupid creationist.
Chill out, por favor.
“Taliban christers are to Episcopalians.”
Bobby this part was aimed at HappyFeet who uses the term christer as part of his provocative schitck. Jeff doesn’t cotton to this attitude, he is making fun of the priorities people who do.
Jeff is kind of big on throwing people’s terminology and rhetoric right back in their faces, especially when it is obnoxious or tautological or just nuts.
So is Ernst.
Maybe it’s time to store a couple of hundred pallet loads of small infantry unit weaponry and C4 witht the Kurds to the North, and step away!
Neal Rauhauser’s Sick Obsession and the #Anonymous #OpIsrael Hamas Scam
“ruralcounsel says November 17, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Maybe it’s time to store a couple of hundred pallet loads of small infantry unit weaponry and C4 witht the Kurds to the North, and step away!”
Turkey would not like that.
I think the last thing anonymous would want to do is have a dirty tricks contest with Mossad.
Anonymous doesn’t fuck with the Russians, because they know the KGB (or FSB, or whatever Putin’s crew call themselves now) would find them, torture them and kill them. They believe they can go after Israel because Israel is a western-style democracy and they think Obama has them on a very short leash.
Mossad doesn’t exactly fuck around.
The admonition to “use enough gun” means just that, Neither too little gun, nor too much gun, but enough gun for you to do what you want to do it.
with it
I like guns that have utility to them. Dual purpose, if you will.
I think you wanted to say “added utility” there, leigh.
That is what I meant, McGehee. It’s been a busy week.
Master the basics first.
I would recommend lighter home defense/tactical/law enforcement loads, also.
Hunting loads are for hunting.
I was making an observation more than suggesting that missfixit keep her shotgun loaded with magnum loads.
Mostly I’m suggesting shooting the loads your comfortable shooting, so that you actually shoot enough to become proficient.
Say if you’re afraid of your Remington 870 tactical because somebody told you need to use 3 inch magnum 00 buck loads, and the first time you tried shooting that you were black and blue for three weeks (or maybe, because you didn’t have the stock snugged into your shoulder properly, you got smacked in the face when the muzzle jumped). Are you more likely or less likely to take the time to develop the skills and the muscle memory to effectively utilize that shotgun when it counts?
There’s a natural tendency to worry about having too little gun, and not enough worry about having too much gun (for you).
And like leigh, I’m speaking generally. No criticism of anyone implied or intended.
There is also the fact that if you plan on using the gun for home defense, you might actually someday be shooting it in your house.
3″ magnums aren’t a good idea in that case. Just sayin’.
I’m of the opinion that virtually any gun is ‘enough gun’ — which is not to say that Bigger isn’t Better (to a point), but that virtually anything will, eventually, get the job done.
Hard to get wimpier than .22LR, but it’s certainly good enough to kill the random stray zombie… and given what the rounds cost, dump the whole magazine into the offending target, just to make sure. Why scrimp?
BTW, I’ll note that in this, The Fourth Year of Our Supreme Leader’s Glorious Reign, it seems that any thread, if left up long enough, will eventually devolve into gun talk.
Not that I object, mind you. I’m just noting that this is a Startling New Development. Didn’t used to be like this.
I was taught to shot until the magazine is empty. Then drop that magazine and put in a new one. Rinse, repeat.
You’re shooting to kill, not to piss someone off, right?
John, I had one of my foodie friends tell me all about how she and her grown kids planned on going to stay with her (heavily armed) dad in the hills of Georgia. “Before the riots start”, she said.
So there is a definate vibe in the air.
If you’re killing actual zombies, fine. If you are killing intruders while law and order are still nominally in place, shooting that many times could get you in trouble.
That is an in extremis situation I was referring to, cranky. A training drill, as well.
Even if you employ the “he was coming right at me” defense?
But hell, shooting someone in self-defense once is enough to get you a murder rap in FL, so point taken.
“They were coming at me and my kids” should work around here. The Castle doctrine. Plus, the po-lice are thirty minutes away.
If you are in an empty house with poured concrete walls, I suppose that strategy would work leigh.
If you are in a house with sheetrock walls and family members in other rooms some restraint might be in order.
I agree, BMoe. Same with the heavy duty ammo.
If it’s your run-of-the-mill prowler looking to steal your tv and not some drugged up sociopath bent on murder and rape and other shits and giggles…
If he isn’t “cocked, locked and ready to rock,” to quote my favorite hollywood psycho marine-cum-merc…
If he’s alone and not part of a pack…
The point being the eventually isn’t as good as sooner than later, let alone now.
I’d take a .22 lr that I could shoot proficiently over a .45 acp I couldn’t control. But I’d rather get proficient with a .380 or a 9mm than have to rely on the .22 lr
No, you’re shooting to stop the threat. If the other guy dies during the process, that’s his problem. If you put him on the ground before sauntering up to him and delivering a Coup de grâce to the back of the head, that’s yours. Castle Doctrine or no, I’d imagine.
This concern is forever unrestricted when shooting. ALWAYS know where your ordnance will end up.
Poured concrete walls can create ricochets, something to keep in mind.
And as far as shooting inside your house is concerned, it all goes through walls. all of it, .22lr to shotgun slug to .50 BMG, and everything in-between.
Some of it just doesn’t go through as many walls as the others do.
You makes yer choices and takes yer chances I guess.
Back of the head? Only in the movies.
Doesn’t change the point about crossing the line from self-defense to murder.
Of course.
This is why you should always train with knives indoors.
I’m kidding. It seemed like a natural extension of my bow advocacy.
we need more info on errant arrows indoors
Throwing knives? Sounds like you could maybe stick the dog by accident. (I kid!)
Claymores.
The Highlander kind, not the “font toward enemy” kind.
Basket hilted ones for close quarters.
I got a story about staying proficient for you guys.
Been submission grappling for twenty years now. Teens to my now decrepit state. Pretty good at it.
So, I’ve been busy lately and I haven’t been on the mat or even exercising all that much for a couple months. Decided this morning that I had to get back into it or I’d just slowly shuffle into the stressed out heart attack zone.
The result? Got submitted twice by a dude who couldn’t have been a brown belt. Twice. In about twenty minutes.
I’m choosing to see this as a reminder to stay in practice. I’m choosing to not see this as a reminder that I’m a broken down old man who might get mugged by any random gang of girl scouts that might be prowling the neighborhood.
Man.
You know what doesn’t require a lot of training to stay proficient? A gun.
bh the concealed weapon permit is the way to go 40+
why do you need a permit “to keep and bear arms”?
why do you need a permit “to keep and bear arms”?
To keep E-vil guns out of the hands of criminals, nr. Everybody knows that.
This is probably better advice than trying to find HGH and some sort of testosterone patch. Which I kept thinking all afternoon.
let it go and try not to shoot the couch. the mrs’ don’t like that trying to repair arrow holes
Losing the RIGHT way: The GOP’s Rockefeller/Libertarian/Tea Party/Socon/stupid-christer-idiot wings all continue their slap fight to see who will be top turd of the dung heap…
http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/16/gop-too-libertarian-free-market-y-say-an
I’m tempted to take a cane fu class just to see if there is more to that “hit that fucker with a stick real hard” or not.
oh and walker/palin 2016
Dapper Dan Punching Bag with a slow leak / up and coming Congressman that needs taking down a peg 2016
And more “rented mule” beatings for the stubborn, backward, lazy ugly base who need to STFU and send money like a good squire.
I’m pushing 50, bh. I imagine you’re a tad younger than that.
As a physical warrior, it would be time for me to retire, if I had lived this long.
Pushing towards 40, cranky.
I can get my mind around retiring so to speak because I was never one to get into fight fights but what’s harder is imagining that I can’t be this affable, young giant anymore.
It might sound strange, it feels strange typing it, but part of my personality has been formed by no one ever really looking to mess with me as an adult. Think this is sorta why I am the way I am.
It was nice. I guess it’s coming to an end now though. Thought I had more time.
Thought I had more time.
it dribbles away. better to think of what ruger you can carry.
re: steelers vs ravens: who the eff puts a bunch of black peeps on the field with prison uniforms?
[Jeff note: Got caught in a kimura. Guy probably weighed about 220 tops. Got me clean from bottom position. Yep.]
[Apologies, btw. I know this is a very trite thing to read for everyone older than myself but I’ve never been older than myself. At my point in the timeline, I’m… a bit surprised.]
Well, bh, the next generation is coming. My boy won 2 out of 3 matches yesterday. He’s becoming a crusher.
Nr, that’s rather a slander on prisoners isn’t it?
If you have to fight at all, you have to fight to win, now. You can no longer afford to give the other guy a break. Nothing is out of bounds.
Figure you’re right, c.
That old saw comes to mind: “You don’t mess with an old man, because he’ll kill you.”
re: steelers vs ravens:
Byron Leftwich had a 30 yd. touchdown run?