[b3lha]

I think the problem with a lot of conspiricy theories is that they go too far and join up too many dots. There are certainly conspiricies going on, but you cannot tie everything into one big secret plan because in reality, such a project would involve too many players, would be too difficult to manage and could not be kept secret. Paradoxically, the only real truth is that we will never know the real truth.

Kudos to boondock, drivemusicnow and myetball for talking sense in the face of so much blind patriotism. Regardless of whether you support Bush or not, I think it's important to understand the difference between what governments do (policy) and what they say they do (propoganda).

Here's my conspiricy theory, it's nice and simple:

We are less than 10 years away from a huge oil crisis (Global Peak Oil). Every country in the world is totally dependant on oil, not just for fuel, but plastics, industrial chemicals, medicine, food. In fact there are few industries that don't require oil or one of it's by-products. When the oil crisis hits, the price will skyrocket. Countries that have it can charge whatever they like (political or financial) and countries without it will either have to pay up or take it by force.

An American oil company wants to build a pipeline across Afghanistan to gain access to the Caspian Sea oil reserves. Unfortunately civil war in Afghanistan is making this impossible. Then 9/11 happens and OBL becomes public enemy number one. The US decides that he must be hiding in Afghanistan. The Afghans deny this, but America invades them anyway. Turns out that OBL wasn't in Afghanistan after all, but it's not all bad news because now they can build that oil pipeline.

Saddam Hussein understands that one day America may try to take Iraq's oil reserves by force. So he really wants to build some WMD as a deterrent. If America is going to get it's hands on that oil it will have to do it before SH develops WMD. So, in the wake of 9/11 they invade Iraq in the name of protecting the world from WMD. Despite the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, that SH did not actually have any WMD, and that Iraq posed no immediate threat to America. But most importantly, America got access to Iraq's oil.

So far it's all worked out quite well for America. They've managed to turn the terrible events of 9/11 to a significant future economic advantage.

There are a lot of people (including me and many other non-Americans) who despise Bush for the things which he has done. But actually, that's his job - to protect and further American interests, whatever it takes. If that means lying to the public, starting wars, sacrificing American lives and generally screwing the rest of the world, then that's exactly what he should be doing. Every other world leader is trying to do the same. You can't dominate the world by being Mr Nice Guy.

If all this bad stuff hadn't happened, then when GPO hits, Americans would be looking back saying "Why didn't we do something while there was still time?". If asked to pay $50 for a gallon of petrol, wouldn't you say "I wish we'd invaded Iraq and taken control of their oil while we had the chance"?.

Just my opinion, I don't mean to offend anyone. Feel free to insult me (within site rules) if you disagree.

Phil.