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CounterPunch
August
23, 2002
Super-Duper: Oil, al-Qaeda and
a West African Adventure
by Anthony Gancarski
A friend of mine with an interest in gambling
on sports informed me with delight that it was now possible to
place wagers on WWE professional wrestling events. The idea
of betting on an openly predetermined activity -- theater, precisely
-- seemed to him a logical extension of the idea that professional
sports are never far from being fixed anyway. It's a given that
certain teams and players get the benefit of favorable calls
down the stretch, and on some level those adjustments are acceptable
to consumers and producers alike.
Just as people are generally willing
to overlook inconsistencies from professional athletes and those
who officiate their games, they are willing to cut some slack
to their so-called democratically elected leaders in the games
they play. Whether they are Democrats who accept Maddie Albright's
description of the United States as an "Indispensible Nation"
or Republicans who cling to Tom Delay's assertion that the US
is a "Super Duper Power", the people of the United
States have been willing to sacrifice untold treasures in the
service of a state that has cultivated allies only to declare
them mortal enemies continuously since the 1930s. One can only
speculate as to the number of nuclear families broken up because
both parents had to work to meet rent, or as to the number of
children shafted by an education system standardized into mediocrity
and irrelevance by way of meeting the Soviet threat. Somewhat
less speculation is necessary when figuring out how many families,
both here and abroad, have been torn asunder by people sacrificing
body and soul alike to enhance the portfolios of the global elite.
In spite of all the good work done in
countries most Americans can't find on maps, there are still
battles to be fought -- and won. If we are to believe Donald
Rumsfeld, Al Qaeda is operational in over sixty countries. Most
recently, we have heard allegations -- as usual, unsubstantiated
-- that Al Qaeda has operations in Iraq. It is only a matter
of time until we find those baby incubators those rascally Iraqis
stole from the then-unliberated Kuwaitis, and then the joy of
the Fox News All Stars will be matched only by the pending bloodshed
of bombing and occupation.
That said, it is perhaps foolish for
us to focus on Iraq to the exclusion of other deserving targets
in this War of Terror. After all, man cannot live by Bombs Over
Baghdad alone. So, in the spirit of ecumenical inclusion, we
should turn our attention to the seeds of conflict, freshly planted
in West Africa for eventual harvest.
In the August 13 edition of The Final
Call, Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner was quoted
as saying at a meeting of the Institute for Advanced Strategic
and Political Studies (IASPS) that oil reserves of Angola and
Nigeria are a "national strategic interest" of the
United States. This assertion is in accordance with IASPS's
position that "Congress and the (Bush) administration should
declare the Gulf of Guinea an area of 'vital interest' to the
U.S." Oil from the Gulf of Guinea comprises 15% of US imports,
and it is unsurprising that the US would seek to rely more heavily
on these mostly non-OPEC nations as it builds to war on the populations
of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and -- if luck is with us -- Egypt.
Of course, all of this sounds innocuous
enough. Just a little oil deal, is all. But the US has a habit
of using phrases like "national strategic interest"
to justify or to provide pretext for all sorts of adventure.
Of late, we've developed the ability to discover Al Qaeda in
nations direly in need of US military intervention as well. If
my friend from the first paragraph were able to place bets on
where US forces might materialize next in this War of Terror,
he could do worse than to put cash down on the proposition that
the US might need to root out Al Qaeda cells from Angola or Nigeria
sooner than later.
Anthony Gancarski resides in Spokane, Washington, where he attends
Gonzaga Law School.
He can be reached at anthony.gancarski@attbi.com.
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