With all of the bad economic data hitting the daily news, such as consumers losing their homes, poor retail and unemployment data, Bush decides to send a $1 billion aid package to the former Soviet republic of Georgia. One can truly see where George Bush's only real interest resides, and that is with the American oil companies in Georgia.
Consumers, strapped with high gas prices and food costs, are now spending mostly on essentials and putting the brakes on discretionary buying. All 50 states are cutting back on hiring, as well as trimming employee benefits and pension funds. Basic infrastructure projects, such as bridge repair and road projects no longer have the adequate funding to bring these projects to completion. Now, news of the official government bailout of Freddie and Fannie hit the tickers this past week. American taxpayers will have to reach deep into their pockets because they are paying for it - to the tune of $billions.
Dick Cheney, currently in the republic of Georgia, is standing on his soapbox, proclaiming to the world that Washington has "a deep and abiding interest in" the region's stability. When you parse the true meaning from this sentence, Cheney can only be referring to the American oil companies who tripped over each other to flee from the Russian invasion of Georgia. As one can remember, Georgia attacked the separatist region of South Ossetia on August 7, 2008. Russia then responded in-kind to quell the violent assault on the citizens of South Ossetia. Cheney is ostensibly a "sore-loser" in this web of oil greed and corporate profits, and reaffirms my belief that the Bush/Cheney White House is using the US Military, in tandem with oil companies such as ExxonMobil, to secure oil contracts and concessions in oil-rich regions such as Georgia. The Russians destroyed, most, if not all, of the military equipment sold to Georgia by Bush. The main BTC pipeline that transits oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia, and then Turkey, was also put out of action in the military intervention by Russia. This pipeline bypassed Russia. An excellent review of this geopolitics of the Caspian Basin and its oil pipelines can be found at the excellent website: Globalresearch.ca., The Eurasian Corridor: Pipeline Geopolitics and the New Cold War, by Michel Chossudovsky.
Not far behind Cheney is Condoleezza Rice, proclaiming on her soapbox, "The free world cannot allow the destiny of a small independent country to be determined by the aggression of a larger neighbor." I think she is talking about Iraq, or perhaps Afghanistan, but certainly not Georgia. Only the Bush/Cheney/Rice junta can attack defenseless oil rich countries, using the US Military at an essentially a zero cost analysis to assist companies like Halliburton and ExxonMobil to name a few, to become so bloated in corporate profits, that ExxonMobil has become one of the world's largest and richest corporations. No one, however, mentions the few hundred thousand casualties of invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and like all forms of warfare, the dead do not have an opinion. The Iraq debacle has been presented by the media in a nice clean package, like a T-bone steak, but without all of the nasty slaughter of the cattle, and the blood and guts, and various bloody images lingering in the minds of the consumers.
Nevertheless, one interesting fact remains about Condoleezza Rice: how did she supposedly become one of the most powerful women in the world? She has essentially done nothing that I can think of to elevate her to this status. Donald trump, regardless of what you think of him, is a good businessperson and negotiator, has described Rice as a useless woman. A quote from FOX News Channel's "Hannity's America" has Trump describe Rice as follows: "In all fairness, I see Condoleezza Rice- she goes on a plane, she gets off a plane, she waves, she goes there to meet some dictator. ... They talk, she leaves, she waves, the plane takes off. Nothing happens, it's a joke, nothing ever happens. I think she's a very nice woman, but I don't want a nice woman. I want someone that's not necessarily nice."
As of this writing, Condi has finished meeting with Bush's new best friend, Moammar Gadhafi, the potentate of Libya. His country has proven oil reserves of 39 billion barrels, and ranks as the ninth largest reserves in the world. Note to Bush: please do not trip over yourself buying oil concessions from your new best friend. In addition, when is the bombing of Libya going to begin?
When you boil away the war of words, and that is all Cheney and Rice have to hurl at the Russians, you find the same common plot and theme postulated by the Bush/Cheney/Rice junta - and that is the continued addiction to oil for the United States, the use of the United States Military to secure these foreign oil fields and pipelines, such as the BTC pipeline in Georgia, and the resulting huge profits that are plundered by the respective oil giants.
It is a solid fact that the US Military is intervening in these countries for economic reasons. One must look at Iraq and Afghanistan to see squarely the lies that allowed Bush to invade and occupy these sovereign oil rich countries. US Military personnel are therefore dying for economic reasons, not for democracy, liberty, or freedom. One could make a weak argument that oil rich countries must supply the world with much needed fossil fuels. This is correct thinking, but must military intervention be the most commonly acceptable method of helping these countries realize their true fossil fuel reserve potential? Would not economic assistance and engineering expertise help these countries in a more nonviolent and fruitful way to fulfill their role as energy suppliers to the world?
Therefore, in the pursuit of oil riches, it is a normal mode of economic thought to postulate that the countries with the most money will favor the most oil concessions simply by the virtue of being rich. China, for example, flush with cash from the United States, is present in all of the oil rich regions of the world, and recently won a concession from Iraq. China also is developing the Kazakhstan-China Natural Gas Pipeline (KCP) originating from the Caspian Basin region. Each country that hosts the pipeline will have a 50% stake in the pipeline. One must ask - did China use military intervention to secure these pipelines and oil concessions? Did China or Russia, for that matter, use military intervention to invade and occupy a sovereign oil rich nation to steal its oil reserves, pay them nothing, and propel one of its largest oil corporations to the number one spot in corporate profits in the world? Of course the answer is no.
One must look at the leaders of the United States and analyze their thinking behind this military mess in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would conclude that these individuals are mentally disturbed, but what is more disturbing, is that civilized foreign nations, like Germany, France, and the rest of the European Union have let Bush have a get-out-of-jail pass on this subject. I am sure economic reasons justify these actions, but their must come a place and time when the European Nations must call Bush's gambit, and call him out and punish him on this subject, as Bush is a war criminal, at the very least, in this violation of International Law.
I can now think back to the Revolutionary War period in the America when British troops, sequestered in the major cities of the time-period, walking around with guns, were doing as they pleased while trying to administer their form of common law. The rebels, if you will, the Americans, in British newspapers at the time were the insurgents, the terrorists, and needed to be squashed by military intervention to let the civilized British Empire plunder the natural resources of the newly discovered region.
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