This analysis recognizes that the US military presence in Iraq is ultimately counter-productive to a recovery of the country's oil industry. But it seems to assume that US leaders are capable of smelling the coffee and getting out. It fails to recognize the danger (to US elites) of a power vacuum that could result in the world's second greatest oil reserves (and concomitant geo-strategic power) falling into the hands of an imperial rival (China, Russia, even France)—or, worse still, Iran or a local Taliban-type regime.

Iraqi oil industry in crisis

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has responded the latest ant-Israel tirade by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad y saying that Israel must prepare solutions "other than diplomatic" in the face of Tehran's nuclear program. "The right move would be to let a diplomatic approach guide us, but we must also prepare other solutions," Mofaz said on a campaign tour for the Likud leadership primaries in Tel Aviv. Mofaz referred to Ahmadinejad as an "Israel hater," adding "the combination of extreme hatred and nuclear capabilities certainly threatens the State of Israel and Western countries." (Xinhua, Dec. 9) Israel, while denying plans to attack Iran, is expanding its military arsenal in preparation for such an attack. It has recently acquired dozens of warplanes with long-range fuel tanks to allow them to reach Iran, and it also signed a deal with Germany for two submarines reportedly capable of firing long-range missiles. (AP, Dec. 9) Iran, in turn, is turning to Russia to develop an anti-missile defense system. "Is this a problem? Do we need permission?" said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in response to reports that Tehran has bought 29 mobile air defense systems from Moscow in a $700 million contract. (Iran Mania, Dec. 9)

A voice of unassailable moral credibility—we hope—is added to chorus demanding release of the four hostages from the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq.

LONDON (Reuters) - A former Guantanamo Bay detainee has pleaded for the release of peace worker Norman Kember and three other hostages held in Iraq.

In the spirit of laughing with tears in your eyes (or, as Wavy Gravy put it, demanding your right to bring a whoopie-cushion to Auschwitz), file this under "Leftist Conspiracy Theorists Vindicated Again." From the BBC, Dec. 9:

The US has admitted for the first time that it has not given the Red Cross access to all detainees in its custody.

The state department's top legal adviser, John Bellinger, made the admission but gave no details about where such prisoners were held.

Correspondents say the revelation is likely to increase suspicion that the CIA has been operating secret prisons outside international oversight.

You can't make this stuff up. From the Jerusalem Post, Dec. 8:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued his anti-Israel rhetoric Thursday afternoon, denying the Holocaust and calling on Germany and Austria to create a Jewish State within their borders, Israel Radio reported.

"We do not believe that Hitler killed six million Jews, but even if this is true by some chance, then why should the Palestinians pay the price for it," he asked, and suggested that the governments in Vienna and Berlin concede two or three provinces to the Zionists and settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all.

The ugly face of petro-tyranny (or is the better term autocracy?). From AP, Dec. 6:

Man Who Received Jaywalking Ticket Dies of Injuries

Washington D.C. (AP) A 73-year-old man who received a $5 jaywalking ticket after he was hit by a car has died from his injuries.

Charles Atherton, a former secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, was hit last Thursday while crossing Connecticut Avenue Northwest, near the Uptown Theater. He died Saturday night at George Washington University Hospital.

Here's some good news for humanity, but a real no-win for the neo-Ustashe and neo-Chetniks who plague this blog. The neo-Ustashe will be aghast that the proud defender of an ethnically-pure Croatia has been subjected to this indignity—or, the more hypocritical ones will be chagrined by the riots in their civilized, Euro-ready Croatia. The neo-Chetniks, in turn, will have still less plausibility to harp on their long-nourished gripe that the world is picking on the Serbs and giving the Croats a pass. We imagine both varieties of kneejerk extremists will become even more venemous upon being backed into a corner like this. Bring it on! Let the abuse hurl forth! From the Financial Mirror, Dec. 9:

Noting the rise of Islamist Shi'ites to power in Iraq, we recently asked Is Iran the real winner? One who seems to think so is Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. In the Nov. 30 National Review Online, he takes the Bush administration on for retreating from the maximalist necon agenda to reshape the Middle East. He especially accuses US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad of a "policy of preemptive embrace of our announced enemies."

The war in Iraq was waged against an evil regime run by (minority) Sunnis. The object of Operation Iraqi Freedom, oft stated by the president and his Cabinet secretaries, was the overthrow of Saddam and the liberation of the Iraqi people. We have repeatedly promised to create the first democracy in the Arab Middle East, in which a constitution will protect the rights of the people, and the people will elect their own leaders.

Most of the establishment in the Muslim Middle East hates this idea, because, if implemented regionally, it would remove every current leader. The royal families, Baathists, and mullahs vastly prefer the kind of dictatorship imposed on the Iraqi people by Saddam and his (Sunni) Tikritis. They have been the Sunnis' biggest and boldest lobbyists, constantly issuing outrageously meddlesome statements from their own capitals and from meetings of the colossal failure known as the Arab League. They don't want democracy. They want the big guys to call the shots, and they want the Iraqi Sunnis to have power far beyond their real political strength.

Incredibly, they have convinced the American government to do just that.