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John Bissett

The coming war for Iraqi oil

As the Bush administration continues to beat the war drums, mustering support for its attack upon Iraq, there are those who still maintain that the US-UK position on Iraq has nothing at all do with oil and that Bush and Blair are quite sincerely concerned about peace and democracy and ridding the world of a regime that threatens global harmony with its weapons of mass destruction. The evidence, however, suggests that Western concerns with Iraq are far less to do with its alleged threat to world peace and everything to do with control of the region's oil supplies.

War games in Iraq

After weeks of debating, the UN Security Council hammered together a unanimous resolution setting harsh terms for Iraqi disarmament, and cautioning there would be brutal consequences for any further defiance.

Bluntly, cleverly, the UN has crafted a situation where Iraq not only has to prove that it has eradicated all of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD), it also has to verify that it never possessed certain WMD. This seems something of a Catch 22 - for if Iraq never possessed the alleged WMD in the first place, then how can it prove that it never possessed them? And woe betides Iraq if it can't prove that it never had something others say it has had. All Globocop has to do is affirm it does not believe Iraq or declare the findings of the weapons inspectors invalid and begin an attack on the grounds that Bush and his fellow hawks were right all along, that the scheming and devious Saddam is just extra clever at hiding the evidence.

Book Reviews

Political Islam

Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion scrutinises the mindset of one of the largest and most prominent political parties in Lebanon and one of the most notorious political-religious groups in the world, tracing its emergence in the wake of the 1982 Israeli invasion to the present day.

The book's seven chapters focus on many aspects of Hezbollah's thought, from its moral basis for political violence, its Islamic state ideals and how the organisation attempts to square this with its alleged approval of democratic processes, to its anti-Zionism and demonisation of Israel and the Koranic origins of Hezbollah's stance on Judaism.

World View

Redefining war
George W. Bush has said that the best way to keep "peace" is to redefine war on his own terms. Our own war against Bush and his ilk, the class war, needs no redefining.

Whatever the post-Taliban set-up in Afghanistan one thing is a forgone conclusion. Any new government will have to be ready to bow with suppliant's knee before the interests of US and in particular its oil hounds, paying back the support their military wing the US air force and US army afforded them. But by all accounts Afghanistan looks to be years away from any semblance of peace and order – which of course gives the US an ideal excuse to maintain a military presence in an oil rich region.

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