YOUR AD HERE »

U.S. on fence in bid to go after Iraq

Richard Carnes

Why is the Bush Administration apparently taking Palestine out to dinner at Mirabelle1s when it used to be they wouldn1t even offer them crumbs from an empty Doritos bag scooped up in Dowd Junction during the Rotary1s annual springtime cleanup?It is because the continued War Hedging Against Terrorism (WHAT) positions the United States in the tightest spot between a desert rock and an oil-based hard place in decades.We are straddling the international fence separating good from evil, only our definition of evil continues to be redefined from conflict to conflict, our desire for worldwide peace being overshadowed by a craving for universal control of decayed dinosaur entrails in order to protect our economy.Almost 60 percent of our current oil supply is exported, with over 60 percent of those exports coming from the Middle East region. President Bush is trying to find a way (as most leaders have for the previous three decades) to decrease our dependency on the remnants of foreign soils, while at the same time appeasing the left-wing, tree-hugging, bandana-wearing, Ted Turner-loving but still-voting liberals who seem to care more about the fate of a frozen half-ton teddy-bear than their own offspring.Regardless of what happens with ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) up in Alaska, current facts are still piled high on the presidential plate and, as Sept. 11 proved, our economy can be dumped down the disposal without a moment1s notice or anyone even knowing the switch was flipped on.Rounding for simplicity1s sake, there are currently about 14 million Jewish folks on the planet Earth, while those of the Islamic faith hover around the 1.4 billion mark, meaning the United States must gamble with 100 Muslims for every 1 Jew.President Bush is holding a 7 and showing a 10 as the house is parading a face card, yet he maintains a stoned-faced smile while insisting Israel has been, is, and always will be a loyal friend and ally of the United States.Muslims hate Israel, with the feeling being mutual, and they have been systematically killing each other for thousands of years, taking an eye for an eye, among other body parts, whenever possible, neither side being able to actually remember who threw the first rock or why, although both are always willing to debate the particular point.As Muslims see it, any friend of Israel is an automatic enemy of Islam, thus worthy of all the attention befitting an infidel, which in the extremists1 case means nothing short of death.Iraq is a Muslim state, meaning Islam is the dominant religion, and is run by the thug, Saddam Hussein, meaning the United States must try to kill him.But we cannot send the Angel of Death to visit Saddam without at least some support from the neighboring countries, or to put it more succinctly, with any of the neighboring countries supporting Saddam. Therefore, the sudden semblance of sympathy for Palestine and all others Muslims in general is somewhat justifiable for the Bush Administration<we need friends to get the job done.Ideally, we could press for peace between the Gaza Strip before invading Iraq, but Israel has made it crystal clear that no such process will be accomplished before the next viewing of Haley1s Comet, yet the president must keep the ball rolling with the war effort, lest he lose momentum and have to start again from scratch, or worse, wait until another attack on U.S. soil forces another round of patriotism.So, here we are, playing the ultimate game of life and death chess, only the United States is playing both sides of the board with Jewish and Arab pieces carved from killer rocks found neatly stacked alongside the walls of a bombed-out mosque.If there were no oil, there would be no American troops, no valid reason for our existence in that part of the world. We would care as much about a few thousand square miles of sand and rocks as we now do about the price of a Big Mac in Bombay.Richard Carnes of Edwards can be reached at poor@vail.net


Support Local Journalism