Tuesday, August 22, 2006

THE BOMBING OF BUCHAREST WILL COMMENCE AT SUNDOWN

BBC News reports that "Iranian troops" have attacked and seized a Romanian oil rig in the Persian Gulf.

I have no idea what to make of this story, and this is one of those bits of news that fly into our brains hundreds of times daily. It could have legs longer than Tyra Banks, or it could fade into the ether before lunch. I have no idea.

All I know, nothing good can come out of this. WWI started because a Serbian teenager shot an Austrian octogenarian. On the balance, this one sounds a lot more serious. But part of me wishes Ceausescu was still alive for the latest contretemps. Imagine Crazy Nicolai & A-Jhad engaging in the war of words over this one!

15 Comments:

Blogger Weaseldog said...

They probably wanted to give the oil rig the same kind of Democracy we gave the oil fields in Iraq.

Few remember it, but the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was over a similar episode.

The Kuwaitis were horizontal drilling under the Iraq/Kuwait border.

Saddam went before the UN multiple times asking for them to pressure Kuwait into ceasing this activity.

Saddam finally told the US Ambassador that he would take action and what was our position. We told him we had no position on the matter.

He invaded Kuwait, our news media and military made up fake news stories about Saudi Arabia being the next step with faked satellite photos. We counter attacked.

Before that war, Saudi Arabia had demanded that we withdraw troops from their country. We were emptying bases. After the war, our presence had more than doubled. Now we have bases all over the ME.

I imagine that Iran wouldn't have done this without Russia giving the nod.

How will this play out? I don't know. There's always wheels behind the wheels.

9:56 AM  
Blogger DED said...

Maybe Glen Beck was right in predicting WW3 starts today.

Or not.

Weaseldog: How did Saddam know Kuwait was drilling horizontally? Just asking out of curiousity.

10:17 AM  
Blogger Weaseldog said...

They were drilling right up to the fence where Saddam's people could see them. In an area that was off limits according to a treaty between the two countries.

During the Clinton years, 60 minutes did a segment on it and filmed a long row of drilling rigs in Kuwait, that were inside the neutral zone, all along the fence that marks the border.

10:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Weaseldog, You left out the part where Hussein/Iraq claimed Kuwait was nothing more than an Iraqi Province and had no sovereignty of its own.

Yea the whole slant drilling thing was allegedly happening too (with never any proof supplied)...but to say Iraq invaded Kuwait to stop the drilling and thats it, is not a reasonable conclusion imo.

Hussein/Iraq always wanted Kuwait and its riches dating all the way back to the '60s. The Brits stopped them from taking it back then.

10:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're kidding yourself if you think Iraq invaded Kuwait to stop illegal drilling and that's the only reason.

I admit it may have pissed Iraq off but they wanted Kuwait as part of Iraq, that's the bottom line.

45 years of history dating back to 1961 shows that.

10:54 AM  
Blogger Weaseldog said...

I didn't say that was the only reason, but that's what Saddam went to the UN with.

Kuwait is still horizontal drilling into Iraq. The wells are still there.

Proof was supplied. All anyone had to do was drive up to the border and see for themselves.

The 60 minutes crew found miles of working rigs inside the treaty zone with no difficulty.

It's not like a working oil field is invisible.

Anyway you slice it, Saddam's invasion of Kuwait was a boon to the US strategy in the ME. The unsteady peace there lasted too long and made it look as if our troops weren't needed.

We lucked out in that respect. Or was it luck? Perhaps in those days, we had leaders with a stronger grasp of strategy?

11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well said weaseldog.

Yea i think it was a combination of luck and having leaders who could actually think a little

11:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Abu Dhabi: A Romanian company, accused by an Iran-owned oil company of hijacking an oil rig on Monday, said it was perfectly within its rights to move the rig to Sharjah.

http://tinyurl.com/k2jxa

Is there any doubt peak oil is upon us? Romania and Iran fighting over a single rig? Kuwait drilling on the border. Does anyone actually believe that the "war" in Iraq wasn't about Halliburton and oil? It is just a matter of time now. People in this country have no idea what's in store for them in the next couple decades, assuming we don't have all out war. The US has not taken step one toward energy independence or environmental awareness.

12:05 PM  
Blogger Thrillhous said...

I think the Middle East just needs more sports. Get a big multinational league of college sports going. Then, instaed of stealing each others oil rigs, they can get to stealing each other's drunken pig mascot. Instead of loathing Israel for its military and economic power, its neighbors could come to pity it in the way we all pitied Notre Dame in the 90s.

2:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thrill-

Mullah, mullah rather than boolah, boolah, huh?

3:08 PM  
Blogger DED said...

thrillous: They're actually trying to do that in Iraq. Unfortunately, the coaches and their families keep getting death threats. And I don't believe that it's over the quality of the teams.

3:33 PM  
Blogger Weaseldog said...

Thrillhous is that a picture of you, or Tom Baker?

3:45 PM  
Blogger Weaseldog said...

Ok, I just looked at your blog and I believe that answers my question. :)

That family photo of Daleks was a good clue.

3:47 PM  
Blogger Otto Man said...

Then, instaed of stealing each others oil rigs, they can get to stealing each other's drunken pig mascot.

I'd pay good money to watch Hosni Mubarak and that pig split a case of malt liquor.

4:48 PM  
Blogger Weaseldog said...

Ughhh, Malt Liquor...

I'm glad I grew out of that stage...

4:58 PM  

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