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Offered from today's New York Times for reference concerning whether or not we
were going into Iraq to establish a permanent base of operations and
colonization. Just the first part is here, the rest can be found at their
website or in hardcopy..

-------------
By Patrick E. Tyler, New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq â^A^O In an abrupt reversal, the United States and Britain have
indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a
national assembly and an interim government by the end of the month.

Instead, top American and British diplomats leading reconstruction efforts here
told exile leaders in a meeting tonight that allied officials would remain in
charge of Iraq for an indefinite period, said Iraqis who attended the meeting.
It was conducted by L. Paul Bremer, the new civilian administrator here.

------------------

Meanwhile, no WMD have been found (remember the administration ridiculing the
UN for not being able to find what they maintained was so plainly evident?),
the US has announced that it will be removing bases from Saudia Arabia and
building 4-6 new bases in Iraq, and the oil industry in Iraq is set to be
privatized by the US for "the good of the Iraqi people" and put under the
auspices of a Haliburton subsidiary.

There have even been reports from those inside what was supposed to be the new
Iraq government (now indefinitely postponed) that the oil output would be
quadrupled, and that Iraq would therefore have to leave OPEC and its oil
limitations, giving one the impression that part of the objective is to take
OPEC apart.

Yes, many Iraq people seemed pleased to give Saddam the heave-ho...not so happy
abour our tendency to shoot first and ask questions later...but if that were
the reason, to free an oppressed people, then we should be moving on to Somalia
and the Sudan and North Korea and on and on and on.

But that was never the intent.

It was about oil and power and redrawing the map of the middle east, as noted
previously.

The outcome of the war was never really in question.

The outcome of the truth is still under considerable debate.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)