Entries this day: And_just_why_do_we_fight? And_why_do_we_stay_up_late? Benkyou aiko calder farm_game

And just why do we fight?

12:58am JST Wednesday 22 November 2006 (day 13391)

First, watch Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki with Charlie Rose

and/or watch Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki on The Daily Show

And if you liked that, watch the movie: Why We Fight, by Eugene Jarecki

For the main main main point, go to exactly 1:00:00 in the movie and watch the next 2 minutes and 35 seconds:

There is a direct connection between events that happened more than fifty years ago, and the war in
Iraq today.

In 1953, the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddegh became extremely irritated the British
were ripping off his country's national resources; he wanted a greater share in it.

The British came to the new President Eisenhower and asked for help on this.  Eisenhower very
conveniently declared Mosaddegh to be a communist.  And we then set the CIA to overthrow him.

     "Three days of bloody rioting culminating in a military coup.."

The result was we brought the Shah to power and he created an extremely repressive regime that
within 20 years had led to a revolution against him.  The Ayatollah Khomeini creates a
government that is violently anti-American.  

     "Khomeini said, quote I pray to God to cut the hands off of all those foreign advisors.."

In the After Action report by the CIA on what they had done in Iran in 1953, they said, "we're
going to get some 'blowback' from this."

We then made a puppet out of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, who was a friend of ours.  He was an asset in
the CIA's computers.  We did so because he was anti-Iranian.  He was very fearful that the
revolution in Iran would spread into his country.  He therefore went to war with Iran.  The war was
extremely bloody and went on throughout the 1980's.  Unfortunately for Saddam Hussein, he began to
lose the war.  At that point, in comes the United States in the form of Donald Rumsfeld sent to
Saddam Hussein by President Reagan to tell him, "we will supply you with intelligence; we will
supply you with the weapons you may need through covert means." It is why cynics in Washington
say, "we know Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction; we have the receipts."

This is what we mean by "blowback."

He remained a friend of ours right up to his invasion in the summer of 1990 of Kuwait.  We became
alarmed when he invaded Kuwait that he could also go on and invade Saudi Arabia itself, the largest
reserves of oil on earth.  We stationed troops in Saudi Arabia; it was a mistake in every sense of
the term.

Remember, Osama Bin Laden had said, "I resent the government of Saudi Arabia for using
Americans to defend Saudi Arabia against Iraq."  We began to fear that we were going to lose
our position in Saudi Arabia.

Well the second largest source of proven reserves on earth are in Iraq.

This leads us now to demonize our previous ally, and to prepare the American public for the thought
that we must take him out.

And why do we stay up late?

4:04am JST Wednesday 22 November 2006 (day 13391)

Fred sent a link to Funny Farm, which has captured my attention for a bit. My best efforts have led me to this:

Rob's best so far

I have not clicked on "Hints" in the upper right corner.

4:11am JST

my new best

I have *got* to go to bed right now.

Benkyou

12:29pm JST Wednesday 22 November 2006 (day 13391)

Going to study now; plan to shrink the shit out of my shotgun of study and focus according to the text I have.

aiko

1:36am JST Thursday 23 November 2006 (day 13392)

Nice time chatting with Aiko tonight. Like we got one step closer in our friendship as well. I look forward to continued chatting; and I'm happy to have gotten one step away from wanting just to go over there and chew on her.

calder

4:46am JST Thursday 23 November 2006 (day 13392)

After chatting with Aiko, chatted with Calder for a while; she told me some messed up stories that have happened to her lately, but ended with a good one about her gem, a Turkish man she likes.

farm game

4:45am JST Thursday 23 November 2006 (day 13392)

Got a bunch more of the farm game done.