THINKERS UNDERGROUND

A Likud-Sharon-AIPAC basis for PNAC has currency in the Progressive Community. This is just plain wrong.

The AIPAC-Israel-Sharon-Likud model is a little bit of an obsolete conspiracy theory. The real backers of the NeoCon Agenda are Big Oil, the armaments makers, and Carlyle.Now that oil is over $67/bbl, and gas is hitting $3.00/gallon, I would propose this more transparent conspiracy theory.

If you want conspiracy theories, I tie the whole Iraq War into a small group of "Big Money" players with "dogs in the fight" ("big Oil" - "Armaments - Carlyle) - not a bunch of right wing psuedo intellectuals with Straussian PhD dissertations from the University of Chicago or Johns Hopkins University - but real "big money" skinny on the table-

* James A. Baker, III, Consigliere to Big Oil and to the "House of Saud" and to the "House of Bush"
* Lee Raymond, PhD, CEO of Exxon Mobil
* David O'Reilly, PhD, CEO of Texaco Chevron
* Ray Irani, PhD, CEO of Occidental Petroleum
* Lou Gerstner, CEO of Carlyle and former CEO of IBM
* Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors
* HRH Prince Bandar ibn Saud, former Saudi Ambassador to the US

Now, let's "connect the dots"

* The US economy needs oil like a junkie needs heroin

* While the rest of the world's auto industry gambled on smaller, lighter, more economical cars - the US "Big Three" gambled (and will apparently lose) on bigger, gas guzzling SUVs and pickups

* There is a synergistic macabre "dance of death" between the "Big Three" and "Big Oil." (Do you remember "leaded gasoline" - our cars couldn't run without it -- a patent holding company and marketing company, Ethyl Corp, owned the patents and the distribution rights. Who "owned" Ethyl Corp? GM, Exxon, and DuPont. Now its a struggling industrial detergent company in St. Louis).

* When "Big Oil" sneezes the "Big Three" get pneumonia - remember the "near death experiences" of the domestic auto makers every time there was an oil cut off or embargo.

* Actually take the time to read "PNAC" - "Program for a New American Century" - (not the blogs - but the whole thing) I don't care what the Bloggers or the Chat Rooms say---

o The primary goal in a "Post Cold War" unipolar world is to maintain a "Pax Americana"

o One goal of the "Pax Americana" is to protect oil

o To do this, under the PNAC model, the US must actively assert hegemony over the oil lands (just like post WW I Britain's "Sykes Picot Agreement"

o Israel is an after thought - a secondary or tertiary beneficiary ("Lagniappe" as they say in French - "The Thirteenth Dough nut")

o PNAC is All About OIL and Hegemony Over Oil

o Our society, our prosperity depend on cheap oil. This is the assumption of the PNAC document.

o And oil is becoming scarce in absolute terms (it's called "Peak Oil")

o Oil is becoming scares in relative terms - as India and China compete for a shrinking supply of oil.


* Hence, the need to "project power" to assert hegemony over oil.

Let's push the "PNAC = Likud" and "PNAC = Big Three + Big Oil" Models

Ask yourself two questions (this is called "engineering sensitivity analysis" - you push one variable to zero or infinitely and tweak the others)

1) What happens to the original model if you drop Israel and AIPAC out of the picture - but leave "Big Oil" and the "Big Three" in. I would submit - no change in the current situation.

2) Now, what happens if you drop "Big Oil" and the "Big Three" out of the picture - but leave Israel and AIPAC in.

If we suddenly discovered a major (Gulf of Mexico or Persian Gulf or Iraqi or Persian or Saudi level) find of crude in our western desert or Lake Michigan or Minnestoa's "Iron Mines" -- would we be pissing American lives away anywhere "for Israel?" To ask the question shows the absurditiy. AIPAC doesn't have near the power of Big Oil or the Big Three or the UAW.