Into the Darkness
By William Rivers Pitt
T r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 18 March 2003

An associate of mine, a former political appointee, recently spoke to a Republican friend of his who serves in a senior position in what has become the Office of Homeland Security. He reports that this official, along with many of his colleagues across the political spectrum within the apparatus of government, are absolutely terrified of George W. Bush.  According to this official, the consensus is that Bush has completely lost touch with reality, and is bringing us to a place where politics will no longer matter.

A London newspaper, the Guardian, has quoted a source close to the administration as saying, "This has been the worst diplomatic debacle of our lifetime." A senior White House official is also quoted as saying, in a voice reportedly awash with sarcasm, "There's a recognition that this has not been our finest diplomatic hour."

There is no calculating the understatement here. There was never any diplomacy involved here to begin with. This has been a disaster, and it is about to get worse by orders of magnitude.

The weapons inspectors, empowered by UN resolution 1441 to ferret out the weapons everyone is so concerned about, have packed their bags and fled Iraq. They have been betrayed by the Bush administration, by Tony Blair and by Spain, as they worked to protect us from both these weapons and from the dreadful effects of a war in the Middle East. 

The inspections were working weapons were being dismantled, Hussein was under control, and no mass destruction materials were found. The fact that the hammer has come down before these inspectors were even half done with their work means, simply, that those pushing for war never wanted the inspections to work in the first place.

Welcome to the timeline.

Very soon now, perhaps within the next 72 hours, the Pentagon's "Shock and Awe" battle plan will be put into effect.  3,000 munitions, including some 800 cruise missiles, will rain down on Baghdad, a city inhabited by some 5 million civilians. This will be done in the hope that the Iraqi army will surrender, thus avoiding the need to send U.S. troops in to fight a ruinous house-to-house battle.

The Arab news service Al Jazeera, operating out of Qatar, will capture images of thousands and thousands of Iraqi civilians sprawled and shattered and bloody in the Baghdad streets, in a manner quite like the bodies we saw in New York on September 11. The resulting explosion of rage within the moderate and extremist Muslim world will be immediate and ferocious.

The terrorism alert status in America will rise to red. Troops will appear in the streets.

Saddam Hussein will not flee, and his forces will stand in Baghdad. American troops will be forced to fight downtown. 

The oilheads in Iraq will be fired, and the pipeheads will be opened.

Israel will be attacked, much to the dismay of Bush administration officials who have pushed this war in the erroneous assumption that such action will serve to protect that nation. Unlike the first Gulf War, this time Israel will strike back.

American homeland security forces, police, fire fighters and emergency rescue personnel will watch their radios nervously, waiting for the inevitable call. They know, better than anyone, that this country is not ready to defend itself against an attack. Their budgets have been gutted, the promised funding to augment their preparedness has not come. They are not ready, but they stand and wait regardless, because that is what they have pledged to do.

Somewhere in America, perhaps in New York, perhaps in Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Detroit, San Francisco, Cleveland, Atlanta, perhaps in all of them simultaneously,  there will be an explosion. A group that cares nothing for the well being of Saddam Hussein will take responsibility, in the name of those thousands of Iraqi Muslims slaughtered in the initial aerial bombardment of Baghdad.

The body bags will come out, here at home and across the sea in Iraq, as Americans begin to die in terrible numbers.

Martial law will be declared, habeas corpus will be suspended, posse comitatus will be left aside, and the strictures outlined by both Patriot Acts will come to full bloom. 227 years of constitutional law in America will draw to a close.

An oil shock will roll across the global community, ripping through an already precarious economic situation. Here at home, the financial cost of this war will hurl us further into deficit.

More explosions will echo across the streets of America. They could be nuclear or biological or chemical in nature, because in the effort to overthrow Hussein we have ignored completely the fact that al Qaeda certainly possesses the capabilities to attack us with these weapons, having needed no help whatsoever from Hussein. These explosions could come from simple fertilizer, as well. Remember that two men with a sniper rifle and a car held Maryland hostage for a month.  It does not take much, considering the shoddy state of affairs in the homeland security realm.

In all likelihood, America will score a decisive military victory. U.S. forces will invest Iraq. The Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root will begin construction on any number of permanent military bases. Administration officials will begin to formulate plans for the removal of other governments in the Middle East, both friendly and unfriendly, by any means necessary.

Civil war will break out in Iraq as the Shia majority, the Kurdish and Sunni minorities, go for each other's throats.  American constabulary work there will become infinitely complicated.

The United States of America has concluded an incredible, perhaps unstoppable, race to the bottom since January of 2001.  The disputed election brought to power a mob of men  Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton, who have been planning this war since at least 1997. The attacks of September 11, allowed in no small part by purposeful blinders placed over the eyes of our intelligence services lest they offend petroleum principalities like Saudi Arabia with their prickly questions, gave these men the excuse they needed for war.

The Bush administration's reaction to 9/11, placing blame on "evildoers" instead of starting an honest dialogue, blocking an independent investigation of the attack for over a year, nominating master secret-keeper Henry Kissinger to chair that investigative panel in what was perhaps the most disgusting insult possible to the families of the lost, ignoring the real terrorist threats in order to focus on the politically expedient annihilation of Iraq, instituting the most ham-fisted diplomatic push ever seen in the history of this nation by utterly ignoring the eleven Security Council members who said no to this war, disrupting international relations vital to the pursuit of true terrorist threats, and all the while underfunding the homeland defenses necessary to protect the American people,  has led us to this dismal place.

The destruction of Saddam Hussein will do nothing, zero, zip, zilch, nada, to protect America. It will place America and her citizens in further peril. We stand alone and naked today. We will reap the whirlwind.

Take to the streets. Scream until your throat bleeds. Call whatever congressional leaders you know, full in the knowledge that you will be contacting a mob of failures, appeasers and political cowards. Make sure you can look at yourself in the mirror as this darkness falls. Above all else, do not succumb to despair.

You owe that much to yourself, your children and your nation as we fade to black.

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March 19, 2003 

"SHUT UP AND 'SUPPORT THE TROOPS'"? ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING?? 

by David Icke

Just a thought. I have heard that now the decision has been made to go to war with Iraq we must forget our opposition to this fascism and "support the troops". Oh, yes, we must "support our troops". Today the Liberal Democrat's leader in the UK, Charles Kennedy, said they did not support the war, but they did "support our troops". Good move, we don't want to lose any votes, do we Charlie? 

Excuse me, is anyone going to say it? No? OK I will: FUCK THE TROOPS. 

They have decided to give their minds away to brainless dictators and that is their choice and they must take the consequences. They don't have to go and kill people, they can refuse to if they want. How about the troops "supporting the civilians" they are going to kill? 

Either the war is right or it is wrong. The fact that it is wrong should not be put aside just because Bush and Blair have done the bidding of their masters and sent "the troops" into a war that has been long planned and was always going to happen no matter what. As I said at a talk in Santa Clara, California, last September: "Let's get one thing clear, they are going to invade Iraq, end of story." There was loud applause because anyone with a brain cell on active duty could see that was the game. 

So I will not be "supporting the troops" who have a choice. My thoughts will be with the Iraqi civilians who face the bombardment from "the troops", just as they did in Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. "The troops" have a choice. What about the people of Baghdad?

A Letter to George W. Bush on the Eve of War
By Michael Moore

March 17, 2003

George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 

Dear Governor Bush: 

So today is what you call "the moment of truth," the day that "France and the rest of world have to show their cards on the table." I'm glad to hear that this day has finally arrived. Because, I gotta tell ya, having survived 440 days of your lying and conniving, I wasn't sure if I could take much more. So I'm glad to hear that today is Truth Day, 'cause I got a few truths I would like to share with you: 

1. There is virtually no one in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are passionate about wanting to kill Iraqis. You won't find them! Why? 'Cause no Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don't want to kill him! Funny how that works! 

2. The majority of Americans – the ones who never elected you – are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction. We know what the real issues are that affect our daily lives – and none of them begin with I or end in Q. Here's what threatens us: Two and a half million jobs lost since you took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one knowing if their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs almost two dollars – the list goes on and on. Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go away for things to improve. 

3. As Bill Maher said last week, how bad do you have to suck to lose a popularity contest with Saddam Hussein? The whole world is against you, Mr. Bush. Count your fellow Americans among them. 

4. The Pope has said this war is wrong, that it is a Sin. The Pope! But even worse, the Dixie Chicks have now come out against you! How bad does it have to get before you realize that you are an army of one on this war? Of course, this is a war you personally won't have to fight. Just like when you went AWOL while the poor were shipped to Vietnam in your place. 

5. Of the 535 members of Congress, only one (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let's see every member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their kids for this war effort. What's that you say? You don't think so? Well, hey, guess what – we don't think so either! 

6. Finally, we love France. Yes, they have pulled some royal screw-ups. Yes, some of them can be pretty damn annoying. But have you forgotten we wouldn't even have this country known as America if it weren't for the French? That it was their help in the Revolutionary War that won it for us? That our greatest thinkers and founding fathers – Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, etc. – spent many years in Paris where they refined the concepts that lead to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution? That it was France who gave us our Statue of Liberty, a Frenchman who built the Chevrolet, and a pair of French brothers who invented the movies? And now they are doing what only a good friend can do – tell you the truth about yourself, straight, no b.s. Quit pissing on the French and thank them for getting it right for once. You know, you really should have traveled more (like once) before you took over. Your ignorance of the world has not only made you look stupid, it has painted you into a corner you can't get out of. 

Well, cheer up – there is good news. If you do go through with this war, more than likely it will be over soon because I'm guessing there aren't a lot of Iraqis willing to lay down their lives to protect Saddam Hussein. After you "win" the war, you will enjoy a huge bump in the popularity polls as everyone loves a winner – and who doesn't like to see a good ass-whoopin' every now and then (especially when it 's some third world ass!). So try your best to ride this victory all the way to next year's election. Of course, that's still a long ways away, so we'll all get to have a good hardy-har-har while we watch the economy sink even further down the toilet! 

But, hey, who knows – maybe you'll find Osama a few days before the election! See, start thinking like that! Keep hope alive! Kill Iraqis – they got our oil!! 

Yours, 

Michael Moore

Will You Cheer For The Rapist Now That The Rape Is On?
by Meria Heller 

March 19, 2003

The war against a defenseless country has begun. We are now being told that we should "support our troops".  The Demo-rats have agreed to be quiet and fall behind their "p-Resident". Dissent will not be tolerated. Injustice Scalia banned the MEDIA from his receiving an award for freedom of speech. Code Red means total military takeover and police state. Protesters will be SHOT to DEATH at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California as per their "instructions". Where do you stand on these issues?

The rationale of supporting our troops now that the war is happening anyway is the ultimate mind control, propaganda, nazi-ism that anyone could hurl at us. It is the same as barging in on a rape and rationalizing "well, the rape is already happening, so I might as well cheer on the rapist" and screw the victim. How will you "support" the troops? With the estimated $1,111 per citizen in America to pay for this unholy massacre? How will you support the mothers and fathers of the troops when (if) they come home in a body bag? How will you support the disfigured children of our "troops" when they propagate after being infected with serious gases, chemicals and mind-altering damage in the war? War? Who declared it war? It is a GENOCIDE. Just like the genocide that is bound to conclude it's totality in Israel against the Palestinians once we "cover" them in world news with "our" war? How will you "support" the troops when they awaken at night for the rest of their lives SCREAMING from the horrors we are asking them to do now in the name of "G.O.D.", gold, oil and domination? How will you "support" the victims of the future attacks on America  which are sure to happen? Will it stay "eye for eye" or should I say 3,000 bombs for 3,000 lives? 

I have said over and over again on the show YOU WILL EITHER STAND FOR FREEDOM, OR FALL FOR FASCISM. This is the time that tries one's soul and also builds the true character of the true patriot of freedom and justice for all. As Martin Luther King Jr. said "Justice cannot happen anywhere, unless it happens everywhere". Where is the justice in this unholy, unproven, un-connected to 9/11 war on the Iraqi people? Make no mistake about it and don't comfort your conscience by thinking this is a "just war". Those two words are an oxymoron. This is a slaughter of a people, fifty percent who are under the age of sixteen thanks to our massacre in 1991 of their parents. We are BABY KILLERS. We are creating an entire future army of  Anti-American terrorists that will come back and bite us in the butt in the not too distant future. As Bill Clinton said we should be trying to work in a world that we will be able to live in when we are NOT the number one superpower on the planet.

Many of you have written to me in fear, desperation and disgust. That is what the powerful families that have ruined this planet for decades want you to feel. They know that their time is about up and are like a wild beast devouring everything in sight. They know that peace has begun globally and will not be deterred. Not by their "war", their fear, their repression, their torture, none of it. Many of you have asked for prayers at a designated time each evening for peace. I say make that prayer for the hand of the Creator to really SWOOP down upon this planet and stymie the "oh-so" powerful with acts only Mother Nature can deliver. For centuries people of all faiths have been praying for "heaven on earth". Well, get ready. It's coming. Only, you have to go through HELL to get to heaven. So, buckle up your seatbelts folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Instead of preparing yourself with duct tape, plastic sheets, extra water, food, and such, start preparing your COURAGE, your SOUL, your EMOTIONAL self for a true test of just what you're made of as you ride the whirlwind that will cleanse this planet once and for all of those who are enemies of all living things. This entire mess will blowback upon them, and deliver the blow of reality and punishment by their own dictums. By their own words and actions, they will fall. Fear not those who can kill or imprison the body. They cannot kill your spirit, nor imprison it. There are many heroes and heroines on this planet right now. They will not be silenced, nor give up. They will continue to fight for freedom, justice and peace for all humanity. These are the days of the William Wallace's, the Joan of Arc's, the Paul Revere's to rise up and fight for FREEDOM. The only thing worth living or dying for. FREEDOM.

Stay out of fear. Stay away from the television and radio. Boycott all media that lies to you. Insist on your rights no matter what the politicians tell you are taken from you. STAND UP for FREEDOM, our time is at hand. The days of the true EVIL that has permeated this planet are OVER. Be brave enough to say "I'm NOT following orders", "I stand for peace".  All we have to do is say NO and watch them implode. 

Get ready - freedom is on the way, for all living things all over the planet. 

Russian Expert Predicts 500,000 Iraqi Dead in War Designed To Test Weapons
Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Russian, 22 Feb 2003. 
www.globalresearch.ca 
3 March 2003 The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/SLI303A.html 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interview with military analyst Vladimir Slipchenko by Aleksandr Khokhlov; Vladimir Slipchenko, is military analyst, doctor of military sciences, professor, and major general of reserves, is a major Russian specialist on future wars.

His predictions of the course of US military operations in Iraq (1991, 1996, and 1998), Yugoslavia (1999), and Afghanistan (2001) coincided almost 100% with what subsequently happened in reality. Today the military analyst predicts the course and outcome of the next US war against Iraq, which the American military themselves have already dubbed Operation "Shock And Awe."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Khokhlov] Vladimir Ivanovich, so much has already been said about the reasons and causes of the new war in Iraq, but I cannot get rid of the feeling that they are either talking about something entirely different, or not telling the full story...

[Slipchenko] The main purpose of the war is indeed being left out of the picture and nobody is saying anything about it. I see the main purpose of the war as being the large-scale real-life testing by the United States of sophisticated models of precision weapons. That is the objective that they place first All the other aims are either incidental, or outright disinformation.

For more than 10 years now the United States has conducted exclusively no-contact wars. In May 2001 George Bush Jr., delivering his first presidential speech to students at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, spoke of the need for accelerated preparation of the US Armed Forces for future wars. He emphasized that they should be high-tech Armed Forces capable of conducting hostilities throughout the world by the no-contact method. This task is now being carried out very consistently.

It should be observed that the Pentagon buys from the military-industrial complex only those weapons that have been tested in conditions of real warfare and received a certificate of quality on the battlefield. After a series of live experiments -- the wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan -- many corporations in the US military-industrial complex have been granted the right to sell their precision weapons to the Pentagon. They include Martin Lockheed, General Electric, and Loral. But many other well-known companies are as yet without orders from the military department. The bottom line is $50-60 billion a year. Who would want to miss out on that kind of money? But the present suppliers of precision weapons to the Pentagon are also constantly developing new types of arms and they must also be tested The US military-industrial complex demands testbed wars from its country's political leadership. And it gets them.
And that is the main aim of the new war in Iraq.
Peculiarities of the War

[Khokhlov] How will this war differ from the no-contact wars previously waged by the United States?

[Slipchenko] First, in terms of its political objectives. For the first time since 1991 the United States sets the goal of changing the political system in the enemy state and removing or physically eliminating the country's leadership.

They have not previously succeeded in this. Remember, the Americans did not previously try to remove Saddam Husayn from politics, and even Milosevic was not removed from the post of Yugoslav leader by military means. The US Armed Forces carried out their required tests of new weapons and then packed up their guns and went home. Now they face a very difficult mission.

Therefore, second, because of the change of objective the strategy of the war also changes radically For the first time the war aims mean that the United States must without fail achieve total victory. To that end it is necessary to achieve three objectives: rout the enemy's Armed Forces, destroy his economy, and change the political system.

The Iraqi army will be subjected to very powerful blows. It will be physically annihilated. In order to impose a new puppet government in the country (and I am sure the Americans have already formed that government) and to give that government the opportunity to get on with its work, the United States will be forced actually to occupy Iraq. The occupation of territory within which seats of organized resistance could persist would lead to large losses among US Army personnel. Guerrillas, and in the context of the Arab world also shahid martyrs wearing explosive belts -- naturally the Americans do not need this Therefore they will totally annihilate the Iraqi army. Practically all Iraq servicemen will die. There will be terrible carnage.

[Khokhlov] Does Iraq have any chance of offering resistance to the United States?

[Slipchenko] In Iraq we will once again see a situation where two generations of warfare meet. Iraq is strong and prepared for a war of the last generation -- on land and for land, for every target. But 600,000 soldiers, 220 military aircraft, something like 2,200 tanks, 1,900 artillery guns, around 500 multiple rocket launchers, 6 SCUD missile launchers, 110 surface-to-air missile systems, and 700 anti-aircraft installations will prove useless when they meet the aggressor.

In fact, there will not be a meeting on the battlefield as such. The Americans, waging a no-contact war, will methodically use precision missile strikes to destroy all the key facilities of Iraq's state and military infrastructure, and will then wipe out enemy manpower with missile and bombing raids.

Progress of the War

[Khokhlov] How will the Americans begin hostilities?

[Slipchenko] First of all there will be precision strikes against bunkers and command posts where Saddam Husayn and the Iraqi leaders might be hiding, against Army headquarters and troop positions, and against components of the air defense system. Sophisticated ground-penetrating vacuum-type precision munitions will be used to destroy buried targets. Even if one of these weapons explodes not exactly inside, say, an underground bunker, in any case the exits from the shelter will be blocked. The bunker will become a mass grave for everyone who is unfortunate enough to be in it.

To destroy armored equipment, in the very first days the Americans will use cluster aviation bombs with self-guided munitions. The "mother"-cluster bomb gives "birth" to several tens or hundreds of "baby" bombs, each of which independently chooses its own target to destroy on the ground.

I am confident that in the very first hours of the war the United States will also use new pulse bombs They are also called microwave bombs. The principle by which these weapons operate is as follows: an instantaneous discharge of electromagnetic radiation on the order of two megawatts. At a distance of 2-2.5 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion the "microwaves" instantly put out of action all radioelectronic systems, communications and radar systems, all computers, radio receivers, and even hearing aids and heart pacemakers. All these things are destroyed by the meltdown method. Just imagine, a person's heart explodes!...

As a result of the use of these weapons Iraqi systems for command and control of the state and troops will be destroyed practically instantaneously.

[Khokhlov] What other new types of arms could be tested?

[Slipchenko] Since this war will be experimental for the United States, several new types of precision cruise missiles will be tested with a view to obtaining quality certificates. I believe attention will be devoted first and foremost to missile launches from submarines. The Americans are planning to make their submarine fleet the main launchpad.

The Pentagon will continue to perfect the mechanism for targeting precision weapons. In 2000 with the help of the space shuttle Endeavor the United States scanned around 80% of the surface of the Earth and created an electronic map of the planet in three-dimensional coordinates. The level of detail of objects on this map is down to the size of a window. That is to say, you could train a lens -- installed in a military satellite -- first on Baghdad, then on the city center, then on Saddam's palace, and on his bedroom window. You give the command -- and in a few minutes' time a targeted cruise missile flies into that window...

[Khokhlov] How long will this war go on?

[Slipchenko] I predict that Operation Shock And Awe will last not more than six weeks. The first period of the war -- the "shock" -- will last around 30 days. Some 400-500 sea- and air-based precision cruise missiles will be launched against targets in Iraq every 24 hours. During that month Iraq's troops and its economic potential will be annihilated. Anything that survives for any reason will be guaranteed destruction in the next two weeks. In the second stage -- "awe" -- the Americans will conduct a piloted version of a total cleanup of the territory. To this end the United States will use B-52 and B-2 Stealth bombers. In four hours of flight one Stealth is capable of detecting and destroying as many as 200 stationary or moving targets on the ground. The United States intends to use at least 16 B-2 bombers The Stealths will be in the air constantly, one replacing the other.

[Khokhlov] Will the Iraqi air defense system be able to counter the American planes and cruise missiles?

[Slipchenko] Iraq already has no air defense facilities in the north and south of the country -- US aviation is constantly bombing these areas. What remains in the center of the country will be destroyed in the first 10 minutes of the war. Iraq's anti-aircraft system is based on the classical active radar detection system: emit -- detect -- illuminate -- destroy. The Americans will exploit this for their own purposes. As soon as an Iraqi radar reveals itself by emitting electromagnetic energy, a precision cruise missile will be dispatched against the "revealed" air defense facility using this same beam. Iraq has no chance of countering this.

[Khokhlov] How much will this war cost?

[Slipchenko] According to my estimates, $80 billion. But the total sum spent could rise to 100 billion. We will never know the exact figure of expenditure, if only because the war will be partly funded by private companies offering the Pentagon their experimental models of precision weapons for free in the hope of future dividends. The program for rearming the US Armed Forces is about $600 billion Therefore today the military-industrial complex need not stint, it can give weapons to the Army for free.

[Khokhlov] What human losses could Iraq suffer?

[Slipchenko] Very considerable ones. Since the Americans are planning to physically annihilate the Iraqi army, I reckon that at least 500,000 people will be killed. This will be a very bloody war.

After the Apocalypse

[Khokhlov] What will come after the war?

[Slipchenko] The Americans will have to occupy Iraq. The occupation corps will apparently consist of four mechanized and armored divisions, one parachute division, and one division of the British Armed Forces. All these troops will not fight. There will be no ground operations in Iraq! The US Army will enter a burning desert -- the Iraqis will certainly set fire to the oilfields -- without a single shot being fired. There will simply be nobody to shoot at them.

[Khokhlov] How long will the direct occupation last? Will the Americans stay in Iraq forever?

[Slipchenko] They will certainly leave Iraq. There is no point in their staying there. The occupation will last one and a half, two, or at the most three years and will cost American taxpayers a further $80-100 billion to maintain the troops in Iraq. Then the United States may enlist in an operation that they will undoubtedly call "peacekeeping" the Poles, Czechs, and other "new recruits" to NATO, the Estonians, but they themselves will leave. The "peacekeepers" will stay a further one to one and a half years in Iraq.

During this time major investments will be made in the country with a regime friendly to the United States, and in two years' time Iraq's oil sector will reach a level of oil extraction of 2-2.4 million barrels a day. In five years they will be extracting up to 5 million barrels of oil a day. The world oil price will fall to $12-15 a barrel. The currently stagnant US economy will soar.

Thanks Mikey. Nice to know there are folks who can see the other side. Even if they're a phony psychic and a vampire.
- Bob -

You sir are a jackass. You choose this lunatic to cite to back your views, you must be as nutty as her!! Michael Moore on the other hand is simply wrong in most of his assertions however witty they may be. Oh and if we want to know the outcome of any given military scenario, who better to ask than a couple of russians. After all it's the noble russians who have fared so well militarily in Chechnya and elsewhere that have brought them all the way from global superpower to second-rate bozo's unable to even understand that the world cares not a bit what they think anymore. I don't blame the messenger, because the messenger is obviously a buffoon. If you don't know how silly you are then I can't really blame you for being silly, can I?
- Kevin -

I have been reading.  I hope these idiots who are sending these e-mails, rot in hell. They have the right to freedom of speech, but if I get my hands on their friggin necks, I will exercise my freedom. You don't support our troops?  Well excuse me, but you don't deserve to live in MY COUNTRY.  GET THE HELL OUT. I AM SO PISSED AT YOU IDIOTS. 

ANGEL

P.S.