A better use for our $87b:excellent Jeffrey Sachs article

[Kathy in Cambridge]

This is a great article:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/13/a_better_use_for_our_87b/

<snip>
"Why would a US government that overlooks suffering around the world and poverty at home be ready to invest $150 billion in Iraq over the course of two years? The argument that the war was about an imminent risk from Iraq has been thoroughly trashed. The war had nothing to do with any immediate threats from Saddam Hussein, and the intelligence agencies knew that last fall. Containment was already working. The war was about oil, specifically about a long-standing and simplistic US vision about the need to militarize the Persian Gulf in order to ensure the steady flow of petroleum."

<snip>
"After the Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks, and with foes in Iran and Iraq, the Bush neo-conservatives decided they needed to occupy Iraq in order to establish a new base in the region.

The repeated outcome of this policy, however, has been "blowback." America's long-record of putting oil before the interests or voice of the region's people has created a deep reservoir of ill will, suspicion, and unrest. US leadership has not understood, or perhaps cared, that others in the world do not want to be pawns in a plan for US hegemony. Thus, every time we install a government or embrace an autocrat in the region, we also foment unrest and instability."

[T Roosevelt]

1. This guy is great

I was him on Charlie Rose last week hammering some jackal from the CFR about these very issues. Too bad he has no control over foreign policy - this country and the world would be much better off.