The Daily Grasshopper

There's a great story on the front of today's New York Times' "Business Day" section. I hope you'll take a few minutes to read it. Here's a quote from the article:

"For any oil company, being in Iraq is like being a kid in F.A.O. Schwarz."

So said a "senior European oil executive." You can read the whole article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/22/business/22OIL.html

I've been making the case that the war George W. Bush wants to wage on Iraq has a lot more to do with his concern for the oil underground than his concern for the people who live above it. The fact of the matter is, his administration is stacked with people who have been very forthright, for many years now, about their covetousness for the Iraqi oil reserves.

Several years ago, people with names like Elliott Abrams, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz (recognize a few of those?) wrote a document called "Project for a New American Century." It became the foundation for a VERY influential Washington-based organization.

I'm going to be quoting from it at length in the days to come, so if you don't want to check it out right now, that's OK. But if you want to see what's really driving the policy our country is following right now, and how little it has to do with "fighting the war on terror," check this out:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Here's an assessment of the direction these ultra-rightists are taking our foreign policy. It's not the lightest reading in the world, I admit, but I think it's time we all got used to doing the hard work of figuring out just what the hell is going on:

http://www.fpif.org/papers/02right/index.html

Sorry to be so brief today. I'm off to play some Irish music down on the "Irish Riviera" (Boston's South Shore).

PK