[R-G] A Surge, and Then a Stab

[CeJ]

Krugman, predictable pusillanimous pipsqueak that he is,  is slinging
out all those liberal red herrings. Pretty soon he will be talking
ominously of how politicians subverted the holy warriors of the
Pentagon, if he hasn't already.

Even if Iraq didn't have as much oil as it has, it might well have US
military bases in it. It's such an obvious choice for its location.
The US military strongly desires huge permanent bases in the ME, ones
with real hinterland and ports. Whether it has them in a totally
dismembered Iraq or in a unified puppet state (if such a thing is
possible) doesn't much matter. The problem --and indeed about the only
problem it has faced--in getting them is the Iraqi Resistance. As it
turns out, post-Saddam Iraq is not post-war Germany, post-war Japan,
post-war Italy, or post-wars Korea. That is, most of Iraq resists.

How Iraq is to be dismembered to make it fit into global oil regimes
is not the same issue, though it obviously overlaps with the
imperialist issue (of the US military wanting forward position in the
most strategic location on earth, because all that oil exists).

Iraq was already dismembered before it was invaded, with the US and
its Israeli ally helping to set up a separate Kurdistan. The problem
for the Kurds is that their oil is clapped out and need re-developed,
always a difficult issue but just about impossible while where the oil
is is still a war zone, even with oil at 80 dollars a barrel. Yes,
what is now Kurdistan does not have the level of violence of the rest
of Iraq, but that isn't where the oil is. Which is why so much of N.
Iraq is contested territory.

The US imperialists discuss how to crush the Resistance. They act as
though if they and their supporters (like Krugman) don't discuss it in
public, the Resistance does not exist. Whether it is a total break-up
plan, a weak federalist puppet state (which would probably
disintegrate), or a nationalist puppet state (hence the search for a
US-friendly but effective dictator), the US imperialists are at their
end game. That is why they are dropping so many bombs on Iraq and
Afghanistan and raising the walls of their consolidated bases.

CJ