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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…On Behalf Of </span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Stefano Vaj<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] future of warfare again, was: RE: Forking<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 2 January 2012 19:02, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>>…</span> The Iraq occupation may be used in the future as a historical<span style='color:#1F497D'> </span>guide to why occupation is a bad idea.<br clear=all><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Now, I understand that the US spent 800 or 1000 billion dollars altogether in order to reach a rather instable solution regarding a few spare oil wells formerly in the hand of Saddam Hussein. <span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span>In the meantime, it took a consortium of 10 countries to put together a scant 10 billion in order to slowly build ITER in the South of France<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span> Stefano Vaj<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>And yet, seldom is the premise questioned. We were told a thousand times that the invasion of Iraq was all about oil. In retrospect it is clear enough to me that is was never about oil. Iraq never had enough of it to justify that invasion and subsequent marginally successful attempts at nation building. Apparently the invasion really was about nukes. If it really was all about oil, where is all this oil we were supposedly trying to seize?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>With the advantage of retrospection, once the allies convinced themselves there were no nukes, the right thing would have been to just pack up and leave, in the fall of 2003. The Iraqis could have kept Saddam if they really wanted him. I don’t see that the world gained much of anything by toppling him, but the price was enormous.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Perhaps that entire misadventure is shaping our actions with regard to Iran today.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>spike</span> <br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>