NOT A SONG OF PEACE

By now, billions have evidently gone into single massive mega-bases like the U.S. air base at Balad, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. It's a "16-square-mile fortress," housing perhaps 40,000 U.S. troops, contractors, special ops types, and Defense Department employees. As the Washington Post's Tom Ricks, who visited Balad back in 2006, pointed out -- in a rare piece on one of our mega-bases -- it's essentially "a small American town smack in the middle of the most hostile part of Iraq." Back then, air traffic at the base was already being compared to Chicago's O'Hare International or London's Heathrow -- and keep in mind that Balad has been steadily upgraded ever since to support an "air surge" that, unlike the President's 2007 "surge" of 30,000 ground troops, has yet to end.

These giant bases, rising from the smashed birthplace of Western civilization, were not only built on (and sometimes out of bits of) the ancient ruins of that land, but are functionally modern ziggurats. They are the cherished monuments of the Bush administration. Even though its spokespeople have regularly refused to use the word "permanent" in relation to them -- in fact, in relation to any U.S. base on the planet -- they have been built to long outlast the Bush administration itself. They were, in fact, clearly meant to be key garrisons of a Pax Americana in the Middle East for generations to come. And, not surprisingly, they reek of permanency. They are the unavoidable essence -- unless, like most Americans, you don't know they're there -- of Bush administration planning in Iraq. Without them, no discussion of Iraq policy in this country really makes sense.

From Why We Can't See America's Ziggurats in Iraq

by Tom Engelhardt

June 15, 2008

***

War

Is

Only the Last Option

But

When Diplomacy fails

All my Bombs are

On The Table.

The

Control of the World

And

The New World Order

Is our Number One job

From Border to Border.

I’ll decide who’ll

Live and Die…

I’ll decide who to Bomb

From the Sky.

If you’re in a Cave

It’ll be your Grave.

I’ll Bomb you First

Then Ask

Questions later---

I’ll be your Savior

And

Liberator.

If you develop any

Nukes

Be ready to put up your

Dukes.

War

Is

Only the Last Option

But

All my Bombs are

On the Table.

Mad Plato

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!