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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Thu, 3 Sep 1992 22:18:00 EDT
From:         the valley of the fuzz-tone guitar <SWEDE@DRYCAS.BITNET>
Subject:      the oily slope of foreign policy

Gilbert:
>Before you bump in trying to explain how the ties between USA and
>the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are strong, I wish you think about the
>reasons these ties are so strong. It again reduces down to oil.

Now, now, Gilbert.  To listen to you, one would think liese had tracked you
down and stomped on your chihuahua, instead of calmy explaining why oil
is not the only factor in the Gulf War.  Single-factor reductionalism may
work well in editorial cartoons, but it doesn't really help reasoned debate
along, as other members of this list amply demonstrate.

>I know that you will tell me the the Saudis are  an important center
>through which the States can stop the communist proliferation in the
>Middle East, but then if you go back in time for a couple of years,
>you might remember that at that time, the ex-USSR was already desintegrating
>moreover, the (till then) Soviet Union would have never got involved in the
>Gulf had it not be through an international movement pressuring them to
>make this involvment.

Amazing.  Gilbert not only knows what liese will say next, he also constructs
a way cool run-on sentence.  Let's deconstruct it:

WRT to stopping commie proliferation: I assume you're being sarcastic with
this (and a pedestrian attempt at sarcasm it would be - the art has clearly
sunk of late on this list).  Some of us who ascribe sinister motives to the
U.S. intervention in the Gulf (yes, I said 'us' - believe it or not, I'm on
your side, sort of) tend to see it as a move by the U.S. to punish Saddam
for straying from the back pocket of the U.S, where he had been kept for the
prior decade or so.  Hell, Bush supported him virtually up to the day that
troops arrived in Saudi Arabia.

Now, the question still persists - what motivated the need for the U.S. to
have a controlling presence in the region, both before, during, and after
the war?  Certainly, oil is an important consideration, but it's hardly the
raison d'etre of U.S. foreign policy.  What about U.S. arms sales in the
region?  Isn't this a business that Bush would like to see protected?  Might
the U.S. want a base for some projected military action against other middle
east residents, like Iran?  Or perhaps, as Noam Chomsky suggests, it's
simply a matter of disciplining a puppet who doesn't want to be controlled
anymore?  Now, think carefully.  Where does oil *really* fit into all this?

While we're at it, since you perceive the intervention in the Gulf as being
motivated only by the presence of oil, and the lack of intervention in Yugo-
slavia as being motivated by the lack of presence of oil, how do you interpret
the invasion of Panama and the arrest of Noriega?  How do you interpret the
strong support of Indonesia's Gen. Suharto?  Is there a lot of oil in these
countries?

And what made you think liese was worried about commies?  Since you claim
prescience as to her future comments, perhaps you could elucidate on this a
bit more.

>Another thing, when you talked about the current situation in South Irak,
>you decided to "leave out human rights abuse". Why? Just compare the abuse
>of human rights in Irak and in Bosnia. If you don't know what's happenning
>there just try CNN. this will get you more    I N F O R M E D....

Tell me something, Gilbert.  If you're so I N F O R M E D, then why do you
so persistantly misspell 'Iraq'?  Surely CNN flashes the name of the country
on the screen once in a while.  Keep an eye out for it next time, eh?

>-Gilbert

Gary W. Olson               "That's tonight's 'Unsolved Mysteries.' Next
SWEDE@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU week we'll present wildly inconclusive evidence
61 days and counting down... on the Amelia Earhart disappearance, U.F.O.'s
                             and God. Be there!"-Evan Dorkin's "Milk & Cheese"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics