OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is the economic organisation of oil-producing countries that regulate prices and minimise profits of exchange dealers. Oil is sold on a global scale based on production, if Iraq had been sitting on a ton of oil and refused to sell it then it could be said that the US was overthrowing Saddam so that Iraqi oil could be sold which would mean more oil in the market, which would drive prices down, this is not the case. But you are right oil prices should drop but not because the US will own oil, (but because of emotions) OPEC has increased oil production to keep the price of crude down (do to war jitters), this extra production has mainly come from Saudi Arabia, they are at their highest output in 21 years (they are gaining the most from this war if anyone when it comes to money and oil) however seasonally there is a decline in demand for oil after winter, with a heavy surplus from increased production this will drive oil prices down. All of this is basic economics and is caused by emotions, not the US controlling any oil which OPEC regulates anyway.

I agree with you though, any country that supports and harbors terrorists will have to answer, and now knows that the US is serious about it. Also, any country where diplomacy is exhausted now knows that UN regulations will be enforced with force if needed, and leaders of those countries will be thrown out. The example presented in Iraq I hope will demonstrate that laws must be followed with doplomacy or there will be consequences; this I hope would prevent some future wars. All of these things and the bonus of oppressed people being free, God Bless America!

 

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US soldiers shot and killed a Baghdad shopkeeper who was defending his shop with a Kalashnikov assault rifle against looters, neighbours told an AFP photographer.

The merchant pulled his rifle on the thieves when they began sacking the shop, neighbours said.

When US soldiers approached the area, the looters told them that the shopkeeper was a member of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Fedayeen paramilitary force.

The American troops opened fire with heavy machine guns, killing the man, the neighbors said.

The photographer saw the covered body of Mohammad al-Barheini, 25, lying on a shelf of his shop, his head in a bag, on the Al-Rashid commercial street in the capital.

one less terrorist , god bless soldier who killed him

 

Where's the proof he was a terrorist and not just really a man who was trying to protect his store and that the looters were lying so they could haul off more things?

 

I think the rgould was being sarcastic.....

War kills innocent people...thanks for reminding us of that, rgould...

But it still has to happen sometimes - this time being one of those times.

 

Hmmm ... that post didn't quit come off as being sarcastic.

 

rgould is one of the war protestors.

He is posting mistakes made by US military and putting owned next to them to make it seem that he is in favor of this campaign and all that the military does. This is an attempt to make it seem that people who support the United States enforcement of UN laws are all warmongers and that they don't care about innocent life, he is a sad individual.

 

Exactly.

 

He needs to chill with the ****

 

Especially using "maxima.org" as if this sight supports the killing of innocent people.

I can understand protestors frustrations though, they said that a war on Iraq would increase terrorist attacks here in the United States, as well as a war on Iraq would kill 500,000 innocent people in Baghdad and that a war in Iraq would be another Mogadishu where civilians all rised up against the military, oh and of course the classic this war is so the US can get oil. Here is a nice for the protestors, now they can get back to their humanitarian protesting of this war that blocks traffic so that ambulances can not get to patients, diverts police officers from places that they should be protecting, and of course which serves to give confidence to Saddam that he is right. Have the pictures of Iraqi's shouting "Saddam Bad, Bush Good, thank you USA" in broken english not made you think that maybe they wanted to be free, do you still not think that they deserved to be freed. Or are you still saying that the US should have given diplomacy a chance after 12 years and 17 resolutions of non-compliance, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but that explains a lot about protestors I guess.

 

Very well put - my sentiments exactly.

 

Is it me or does it seem like every week their is a new reason for war. First it was all about weapons of mass destruction then it was about oil and now it is about preserving freedom. Yeah i support the troops but WTF the war is pointless.

 

We're the US of friggin A.

We don't need no stinking reason.

 

 

The truth is that there is multiple reasons.

1) Stop Saddams regime from threatening the Middle East and the world with WMD.....After all, he's spent 12 of the last 20 years threatening his neighbors.
2) Give the money of Iraq back to the Iraqis (Oil)
3) Stop the possible spread of terrorism through iraqi training camps. (Yes, they have found more than a few)
4) Stop the oppression and murder of the people of Iraq (which has caused many, many more deaths than any accidental coalition bombings)
5) Prove to other countries that may try and attack/hurt us that we aren't f'ing around. (Syria, Iran, N. Korea, etc, etc)
6) Payback for 12 years of deception and failed democracy that the UN didn't have the ***** to take on.

All of those are reasons. I've never heard the US Government say that there was any one reason.....

 

"War kills innocent people..." i wonder how you feel if it was your brother or sister, think about it.

 

I have 2 brothers over there right now, jackazz.

I spend every day thinking about it.

 

I think you're one of those people whom in the 1770's would've voted to not revolt against England because a war on our soil would kill many of innocent lives

"Saddam exterminates entire town with biological/chemical weapons.." i wonder how you WOULD feel if it was your entire family, think about it.

Dying for your freedom, vs. Dying when you don't know why or even know what the hell is going on and before you know it you're dead on the floor when you were just coming back from buying bread for your hungry family.

If you don't see that, then you will always and forever be

Have a nice day.

P.S. I think rgould is a.k.a. Roadbeast

 

yes i am one of those and i am 255 years old

blame it on me i gave those weapons to saddam in 1980's(also bin laden)

i guess you feel more free now compared to like 2 months
indeed
max002 aka chris rock

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rgould
[B]



I don't know what this means - Saddam's weapons are Russian made.


You make no sense....I don't get that one. If you mean 2 months ago, yes, I do appreciate it more....I suspect that the general consensus is that we all do after more and more seeing what Saddam's regime has been up to for 30 years up to this point.

 

thinking about iraqis too?

 

Yes - they are too, I'm sure.....We got a letter Wednesday from Basra with my brother talking about how happy he is to be helping those poor people.

Made me proud.

 

HEY!




ain't nuttin wrong wit cornbread

 

Do you not know how to read? Max002 said would've, as in would have.

 

You are right in one aspect, this war is pointless because all Saddam had to do was cooperate with inspectors, that's what protestors should be saying. I for one am glad that he didn't because if he had he would have been able to stay in power and keep oppressing his people, have you seen how is people love the US for freeing them, do you not feel that they deserve not to be tortured and oppressed.

Yes the war is about preserving freedom, it is about stopping terrorism where ever it hides. You can not be free and live in fear that a horrible act will fall upon you or your loved ones, this campaign has everything to do with freedom.

So you think we should have just let Saddam keep processing and building stock piles of weapons of mass destruction, based on his history, and how he tortures people. This guy doesn't just torture people, he tortures peoples children to extract information WTF is with that???

Killing people is awfull, and a gun shot to the head is an efficient way to do it. Does Saddam do that, no he throws them into shredding machines, what do you think resides in this mans head where he would take someone just because they don't like him and not just kill them, but kill them in the most awfull way possible, you want a guy like that to have weapons that could kill thousands?

UN laws that are put in place to provide peace have been broken for 12 years, a total of 17 resolutions were made to try and get Saddam to comply, he has not obeyed one of them. The US even tried to help Saddams people by installing santions that said he had to provide 50% of oil proceeds as humanitarian aid to his people, Thousands of people have starved since then yet he has built more palaces since those sanctions were imposed. Wow another failed attempt at diplomacy. Should we just turn away from all of this. What is the motivation for any evil dictator to follow laws when they know they will not be enforced??

Ya this war is pointless, get a clue.

The war was never about oil, where the **** did you get that??

 

Tell your brother's that even though my family, friends and myself do not know them we all hold them in the highest regard and consider them true American heroes. This campaign will prevent future acts on innocent people like we saw on 9/11 whether here or abroad, and is freeing oppressed people; there could not be a more just cause for this war or their involvement in it.

Although I know that words cannot express how much we appreciate their selfless act of heroism, I would just like you to tell them thank you, we are praying for their safe return, and we are proud that they are Americans.

That goes for all coalition soldiers in harms way.

 

 

"The army of America is like Genghis Khan," Fouad Abdullah Ahmed, 49, snapped as U.S. tanks rumbled by without stopping. "America is not good and Saddam is not good. My people refused Saddam Hussein, and they will refuse the Americans."

 

Wow your listening to someone who probably has a fifth grade education, (and you provide no resource) you really have a strong argument there, and he presents such good evidence.

Sorry but Americans have already been welcomed, look at the pictures of citizens and soldiers tearing down pictures of Saddam together, or statues falling.

It is obvious that the Iraqi's welcome the liberation of their country from a man who has oppressed and tortured them, are you so hard headed that you will still say that America should not have liberated them, and the Iraqi people did not want to be liberated just to justify that you were right to protest this war? Your @$$ should go live in an oppressed country for a while, then when someone wants to liberate you have some snot nosed punk who enjoy's freedom get all up in arms to tell them to stop, because he thinks he is right when in fact he is wrong!! Here is a sign your familiar with

WTF is your agenda??

 

Latest News - Bush says that he believes there are chemical weapons in Syria :-D

 

The Syrians have been pizzing us off since even before Iraq.

We need to do something about that - I'm not saying military action right away, but something. Sanction their azzes.

 

After them whos next? this will keep going on and on and on and on...

 

Has been for 5,000 years of civilization.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not all about a war with Syria, but economic punishment I think would be appropriate.

 

Whoever breaks international peace keeping laws will be next, and whoever condones terrorism and activly supports it. Diplomacy will always be used first no one wants war, but if diplomacy fails as it did in Iraq these colors don't run. International laws must be upheld to make them legitimate, if evil dictators know that they will not be enforced they will see no need to obey them.

This could be seen in an analogy; what if here in the US police were not allowed to persue cars that flee because it puts innocent people in danger. Do you think criminals would pull over for the police and be arrested, or do you think that they would just put the pedal to the metal knowing that the police would not follow them and they could get away; laws would become meaningless.

It must be known that laws will be enforced for them to remain legitimate.

 

i feel the war is necessary and just. liberty comes at a cost, and the cost is often life and limb. this nation was built on that principle and it will continue in that way as long as it exists. the current bush administration has been clear all along about what it intends - to rid the world of terrorism. after 9/11, the world changed permanently. perhaps 12 years ago, the political climate was not quite ripe enough to do to saddam in iraq what the united states is doing to his (dead) regime now -- ridding it of a rulership more sickening than i imagined it ever was prior to media coverage of it during this war.

to protest against the war is, to me, ineffective and non-sensical. to balk that it is solely about oil is a myopic oversimplification of what is happening. oil is there, of course it is, but that is not the main idea. >>> there is proof every day, as this war develops, of further hidden-away instruments of a sadistic saddam-lead body of terrorism or the means to create it. remember, the baath party, hesbolah, the call for "jihad" by lunatics like bin laden, etc --- they are all in bed together and they want you and me DEAD right now. just like they wanted american citizens from every ethnicity, of new york city and washington, d.c., DEAD.

the world is different now. we're not so naive anymore: we know what diabolical despots, like saddam, like joseph stalin, like hitler, like chairman mao, like all of those butchers in history are up to.

syria is next.

 

 

what happened to rgould?

 

He realized that half the stuff he said didn't make any sense.

 

Just keep in mind that US didnt care about INTERNATIONAL law anyways. Its not about who is disturbing international laws, its more like which country doesnt care about USA :-)

 

i bet he was banned because he was anti-war type
pretty sad for org to ban people who dont agree with war
i guess only pro-war people can post on org

 

I bet he was banned because he wasn't talking like a reasonable adult, but more like a 13 year old that just got his bicycle taken away.