formerly known as kenspank
03-12-2003, 12:40 PM
Saddam Hussein can thank America for helping him come to power in Iraq in 1975. In 1969, American assistance brought Muammar Khaddafi to power in Libya and earlier, Reza Pahlavi ascended the Peacock throne in Iran by similar means. All these nations held large reserves of oil, which America needed. America needed more oil as its anti-trust legislation, restrictive regulations and business taxation policies took their toll on America's biggest pre-WW2 corporations. The postwar program of socialized road and freeway building was funded in large part by the taxes taken from America's rail industry. Before WW2, the railroads were America's biggest corporations, the biggest employers, the biggest profit earners and America's biggest corporate taxpayers. A boom in automobile manufacturing followed the mushrooming of America's road and freeway system, complimented by rapid growth in America's trucking industry.
Within less than two decades, American government policies had turned America from a nation which produced its own oil, to a nation which became dependant on foreign oil imports to sustain itself economically. At the present day America imports 56-percent of its oil from outside. There are friendly oil suppliers, like Canada's Hibernia oil project, the Venezuelan oil production, Nigeria's oil production and the North Sea oil platforms, which are relatively recent oil production programs. Historically, since the end of WW2, Middle Eastern oil production was America's main outside supplier. Nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Qatar and Kuwait, all Islamic nations, became America's economic lifeline. Maintaining political stability at the other end of this lifeline seemed to be in America's best interests, however, it did not always seem to be in the best interests of the people living in some of those nations.
The Iranian people rose up during the 1970's and overthrew America's good friend, Shah Reza Pahlavi. In 1979, America's good friend in Bagdad, Saddam Hussein, went to war with Iran, to punish their anti-American behavior. Some 700,000-lives were lost in the 10-year conflict. When Saddam turned anti-American and began the Gulf War, some 200,000-lives were estimated as lost due to American bombing of Iraq. UNICEF has estimated that some 1.67-million young lives have been lost due to American sanctions against Iraq. America's good friend from the Afghan-Soviet war, Osama bin Laden, was living in Saudi Arabia when the Gulf War began and wanted to organize an Islamic army to drive Saddam out of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He was rebuffed in his efforts from doing so. He, as well as many other devout Muslim Saudi Arabian's viewed the presence of American forces on Saudi soil as a desecration of Islam's holiest places.
Perhaps America's urgency for mid-East oil was such that it could not wait for an Islamic army under bin Laden to have driven Saddam back into Iraq. Bin Laden and the Mujahedeen had successfully driven the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, but they took 10-years. American forces landed in Saudi Arabia to drive Saddam out of Kuwait and a contingent of US forces may still be at Riyadh. These events are believed to be behind the first WTC bombing and its destruction on September 11. Now America wants bin Laden, dead or alive, and has initiated strategic bombing Afghanistan as one of the means to achieve this end.
Despite a growing anti-war protest movement, the present American president seems determined to get bin Laden. The building of a worldwide coalition, including the former Soviet Union, to eradicate terrorism based in Afghanistan, may have something to do with Soviet oil. Several years ago, a theory was formulated in a UK researcher, that after the Soviet breakup, America would come to depend on Soviet oil within a less than two decades. His theory claimed that there were extensive oil deposits located in the area east of the Caspian Sea, even stretching as far as the Chinese border. Ramsbottom rejected the idea of an oil pipeline due to mountainous terrain. Instead he claimed that navigable waterways connected the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, via Volgograd and the Volga and Don Rivers. He claimed that oil carrying barges would travel this route past Istanbul, into the Marmara and Aegean seas, then transfer the oil to supertankers parked either in the Aegean or Mediterranean.
The newfound friendship between Washington and Moscow may indicate that some one advising the Whitehouse could be considering Ramsbottom's theory. The Soviet waterways may need to be dredged to allow larger carriers to sail their waters, as may the Suez Canal to allow passage to larger oil-carrying ships. Ramsbottom claimed the Caspian Sea was an inland salt water sea, nearly 100-feet below ocean sea-level. He theorized that by having its water level at ocean sea-level, ship navigation problems would be eased. At the present day, there is the threat of rising ocean water levels, which could cause harm to coastal areas and large coastal cities around the USA as well as in other nations. By flowing excess ocean water into the Caspian Sea, the threat of rising ocean water levels may be eased, saving $-billions to the US and other Western economies. A considerable amount of Russian land in the Caspian region may need to be purchased for the purpose of ocean water diversion, a price the developed world may even be willing to pay.
Russia needs Western economic support and it may need it urgently. Selling oil and land to the West is one method to gain access to hard currency. Now that the US has come to fight the enemy which humiliated the old Soviet Army, Russia is willing to assist. After the bombing of Afghanistan is over and bin Laden gone forever, there may be talk of Russian oil (and land) being sold to the West and the old Ramsbottom theory may again come to light.
Within less than two decades, American government policies had turned America from a nation which produced its own oil, to a nation which became dependant on foreign oil imports to sustain itself economically. At the present day America imports 56-percent of its oil from outside. There are friendly oil suppliers, like Canada's Hibernia oil project, the Venezuelan oil production, Nigeria's oil production and the North Sea oil platforms, which are relatively recent oil production programs. Historically, since the end of WW2, Middle Eastern oil production was America's main outside supplier. Nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Qatar and Kuwait, all Islamic nations, became America's economic lifeline. Maintaining political stability at the other end of this lifeline seemed to be in America's best interests, however, it did not always seem to be in the best interests of the people living in some of those nations.
The Iranian people rose up during the 1970's and overthrew America's good friend, Shah Reza Pahlavi. In 1979, America's good friend in Bagdad, Saddam Hussein, went to war with Iran, to punish their anti-American behavior. Some 700,000-lives were lost in the 10-year conflict. When Saddam turned anti-American and began the Gulf War, some 200,000-lives were estimated as lost due to American bombing of Iraq. UNICEF has estimated that some 1.67-million young lives have been lost due to American sanctions against Iraq. America's good friend from the Afghan-Soviet war, Osama bin Laden, was living in Saudi Arabia when the Gulf War began and wanted to organize an Islamic army to drive Saddam out of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He was rebuffed in his efforts from doing so. He, as well as many other devout Muslim Saudi Arabian's viewed the presence of American forces on Saudi soil as a desecration of Islam's holiest places.
Perhaps America's urgency for mid-East oil was such that it could not wait for an Islamic army under bin Laden to have driven Saddam back into Iraq. Bin Laden and the Mujahedeen had successfully driven the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, but they took 10-years. American forces landed in Saudi Arabia to drive Saddam out of Kuwait and a contingent of US forces may still be at Riyadh. These events are believed to be behind the first WTC bombing and its destruction on September 11. Now America wants bin Laden, dead or alive, and has initiated strategic bombing Afghanistan as one of the means to achieve this end.
Despite a growing anti-war protest movement, the present American president seems determined to get bin Laden. The building of a worldwide coalition, including the former Soviet Union, to eradicate terrorism based in Afghanistan, may have something to do with Soviet oil. Several years ago, a theory was formulated in a UK researcher, that after the Soviet breakup, America would come to depend on Soviet oil within a less than two decades. His theory claimed that there were extensive oil deposits located in the area east of the Caspian Sea, even stretching as far as the Chinese border. Ramsbottom rejected the idea of an oil pipeline due to mountainous terrain. Instead he claimed that navigable waterways connected the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, via Volgograd and the Volga and Don Rivers. He claimed that oil carrying barges would travel this route past Istanbul, into the Marmara and Aegean seas, then transfer the oil to supertankers parked either in the Aegean or Mediterranean.
The newfound friendship between Washington and Moscow may indicate that some one advising the Whitehouse could be considering Ramsbottom's theory. The Soviet waterways may need to be dredged to allow larger carriers to sail their waters, as may the Suez Canal to allow passage to larger oil-carrying ships. Ramsbottom claimed the Caspian Sea was an inland salt water sea, nearly 100-feet below ocean sea-level. He theorized that by having its water level at ocean sea-level, ship navigation problems would be eased. At the present day, there is the threat of rising ocean water levels, which could cause harm to coastal areas and large coastal cities around the USA as well as in other nations. By flowing excess ocean water into the Caspian Sea, the threat of rising ocean water levels may be eased, saving $-billions to the US and other Western economies. A considerable amount of Russian land in the Caspian region may need to be purchased for the purpose of ocean water diversion, a price the developed world may even be willing to pay.
Russia needs Western economic support and it may need it urgently. Selling oil and land to the West is one method to gain access to hard currency. Now that the US has come to fight the enemy which humiliated the old Soviet Army, Russia is willing to assist. After the bombing of Afghanistan is over and bin Laden gone forever, there may be talk of Russian oil (and land) being sold to the West and the old Ramsbottom theory may again come to light.