Miscellaneous

Forget The Baker Report On Iraq, Here Is How To Win – Pass It On

December 6, 2006 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

You cannot beat extremism in a guerilla war but you can beat it on the economic and political field and this is where the war on terror needs to go. With the entire Baker Report hullabaloo dominating the airwaves has anyone bothered to consider that all of this war to stabilize the area for its continued usage of oil could have been avoided and instead the money used to fund the war could have been used for alternative fuel and energy research? Even worse than sanctions for Iraq would have been the effort of the United States to promote a policy which seen them leading the way for the world to abstain from Middle East oil dependency. The half-trillion dollars spent on the war in Iraq could have been used to marginalize Iraq by providing America and the rest of the world an alternative energy development program. We could have created much needed highly skilled jobs here in America while at the same time becoming the world’s leader in energy research and development. We could have reduced a major funding source for extremism while at the same time procuring our energy future. As ridiculous as it sounds, we most likely would have been better off had we just taken all of the money to be spent on Iraq and instead purchased all of Americas oil consumption for the past five years, add in that oil prices would have been much lower and you can see that we would have gotten even more results for our buck. Now consider the Bush White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey originally put the cost of the Iraq war at $200 billion dollars and you can see why Americans are fed up wit this war and the Bush Administration. Mitch Daniels went so far as to say that Lindseys’ estimate was on the high end and that the true cost of the war would settle around $60 Billion dollars. Daniels was the director of the Office of Management and Budget when he made this absurd statement. Nonetheless, here we are, at the point of this conflict where we are now discussing the Baker Report like it will be the Holy Grail, the panacea for all of our ills. What do you think?

We have listened to the slogans and heard all of the pep talks. I actually recall former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz claiming at one time that Iraq’s oil revenue would cover the costs of the Iraqi war. According to CNN Wolfowitz previously stated, “There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. … The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two to three years. … We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” So when will this ingenuous plan kick in? Why has no one recalled these frivolous statements and held people in authority accountable? Can you just lie to Americans and then ignore the repercussions? Where is the accountability President Bush promised when he first took office?

After reading the Baker Report President Bush did make one good perception of the situation by stating, “The country (America) is tired of pure political bickering.”

On Tuesday the President’s Secretary of Defense nominee Robert Gates gave an open and honest assessment of the Iraq War. Carl Levin asked the former CIA chief whether the United States was winning the war in Iraq and nominee Gates responded by stating, “No, sir.” What will Gates do to change the current Bush policy in Iraq? We are not sure. The only sure thing we need to do is end this war. America needs to invest in America and leave the war ravaging extremists to their own devices. We must confront extremism but it should be on a political and economic field not in the streets of a semi-third world country.

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