Re: this is about oil. It's always about oil

> << Again: why is it coming out of the Middle East?
>   >>
>
> I would have to say that its because Islam provides a unifying
> ideology, one
> which can be transformed in a millinerian direction into an us vs. the
> infidels thing and is not policed by a centralized 'pope'.
>
> True, the fact that the US has rarely intervened in parts of the
> world  where
> it does not have any oil to worry about (such as Chile, the Dominican
> Republic, the Korean Peninsula, Nicaragua, Congo, Vietnam, Kosovo, Haiti)
> weakens my case, but even so, I'm going to stick to that argument.

Of course we must examine political-cultural dynamics to explain 9-11.  I'd
be the first to agree to that.  Indeed, how could the Cold War in
Afghanistan as Jihad, which led to 9-11, be explained outside Jihad?  It
couldn't very well.  But by the same token, we must examine the geopolitics
of particular regions and global processes if we are seeking to explain such
developments.   In the Middle East, the mix of oil and Cold War is obviously
key to Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, but
also to events in Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Algeria, Sudan, Somalia,
etc. all being linked through Jihad and US imperialism (all these places and
developments of course shaped as parts the (de)evolution of the capitalist
world-economy).

Please bear in mind that I never argued that Rall's article was all that
needed to be said.  I just sent it because it raised the point that, as
obvious as it is, doesn't get much air these days.

elson boles