Jan 08 2010
As noted the other day the British Iraq War Inquiry has resumed after their holiday break.
Below you will find some of the reports from the outlets of these past days testimonies and what’s coming up. These are more focused on the British with little mention, unlike before the holidays, of what was going on here in this country and our administration and military leaders.
Sep 15 2008
The New York Times, on 10 September, published this story about the Iraq Government canceling oil field development contracts with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Shell, Total and BP.
While not particularly lucrative by industry standards, the contracts were valued for providing a foothold in Iraq at a time when oil companies are being shut out of energy-rich countries around the world.
“Not particularly lucrative” might well be interpreted to mean, they were not production sharing agreements in which the contractors, the oil companies, get ownership of a share of the oil. Rather than a share of the oil the agreements were technical service contracts in which the oil companies would be paid set fees for their services. This is the usual contractual format for services used in the other oil rich countries in the Persian Gulf Region.
Jul 31 2008
Rand Corporation has recently published a report which concludes that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. To me it is mind-boggling that it took Rand, or anyone else, 8 years to come to this conclusion. Now the damage has been done. Hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, over a million lives lost, millions of people displaced, destruction of property and in the end we’ve only created more “terrorists” which in turn could be used as a pretext to continue the GWOT.
By analyzing a comprehensive roster of terrorist groups that existed worldwide between 1968 and 2006, the authors found that most groups ended because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they negotiated a settlement with their governments. Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended, and few groups within this time frame achieved victory.
These findings suggest that the U.S. approach to countering al Qa’ida has focused far too much on the use of military force. Instead, policing and intelligence should be the backbone of U.S. efforts.
Apr 01 2008
The Hatfields and McCoys were rival American clans who feuded in the latter part of the 1800s. They lived on opposite riverbanks and dealt in moonshine.
The Shiite clans of South Iraq are having family feuds and the new government and its occupiers have been unable to settle them down. It took negotiation from Iran, because clan ties predate national borders.
Imagine if aliens from another planet had come to the US in the 1800s to intervene between the Hatfields and McCoys! Ironically, in 2003 they united against their common enemy, “the perpetrators of 9/11.” check out their next reunion plan here.