appalling

The terrible truth is that the "last man standing" mentality being applied by the bush adminiztration isn't even working.

Before the 1991 Gulf War the country's oil sector produced as much as 3.5 million barrels per day. But after four years of occupation, Iraq has only recently and momentarily managed to reach an output of 2.1 million barrels per day. And it can rarely manage to export more than 1.5 million barrels per day. Iraq's current oil production is concentrated in the north and the south. But since the US-led invasion, production in the northern fields has been almost totally off-line because of constant sabotage: 400 major attacks have been recorded on the pipelines that connect the Kirkuk fields to the Baiji refinery and both of those to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Last year attacks on oil installations and employees killed 289 people and wounded 179. The Nation

I doubt if Iraq will be producing anyway near the 6 million barrels of oil per day Paul Wolfowitz and others predicted the country would be turning out by 2010 as the neocons tried to assure Congress that Iraq would foot the bill for its own reconstruction, not the American taxpayers. Right. What we're seeing is that the oil isn't flowing. The plan, as many believed it, was to invade Iraq on the premise that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the U.S. or he had helped with the 911 attacks or damn... what was the other reason they gave us for needing to invade another sovereign nation? Oh yes, to free the Iraqi people from cruel brutality. Yes the plan was to use some combination of those reasons (depending on the audience of the moment) as an excuse to invade Iraq and therefore secure a foothold in the region of the planet with 2/3's the oil left in the ground before other industrializing giants like China or India got in there. It seems obvious that the plan was at least in part to secure oil through the use of military force. And to me that sort of plan, the plan to use violence to provide ourselves with a temporary extension of suburban life, is an abomination. Remember that part about freeing the the Iraqis from brutality? Read this from a woman writing in Baghdad.

Just know that we never had to tolerate this before. There was a time when Iraqis were safe in the streets. That time is long gone. We consoled ourselves after the war with the fact that we at least had a modicum of safety in our homes. Homes are sacred, aren’t they? That is gone too.

Americans in America are still debating on the state of the war and occupation- are they winning or losing? Is it better or worse.

Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile.

Some of us, it must be pointed out, never believed any of the reasons given for Operation Iraqi Liberation. So whether the rest of America believed that Saddam had WMD's (none) or believed that he helped Osama Bin Laden (nope) or believed that we would be helping out the common folks in Iraq (see above, doesn't seem so) can we please admit as a country that this mistake is a failure? Bush Adminiztration, will you please recognize the terrible tragedy, that all of this, the billions of dollars, the thousands of American lives, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, the rampant unrest in that country, the depleted uranium contamination, all of this didn't even get you the oil you wanted in the first place? You have certainly caused misery in Iraq but you didn't even accomplish your privately established objectives. This war is a failure in every way possible.

Can we now please address the issue of an eminent peak in global oil production? Is it possible for us to focus now on the awfully tough (but enjoyable) work of rebuilding our society with the aim of eliminating our dependence on fossil fuel consumption? They had their shot. But now that the violence of "Last Man Standing" has proven a failure, can we please get on with the reconstruction our world?

Because we just can't afford another appalling mistake.

Please American people, let us keep out of Iran.