[IP] more on US ready to seize Gulf oil in 1973
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2004 11:05:51 -0800
From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] US ready to seize Gulf oil in 1973
X-Sender: ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At 07:35 AM 1/1/04, Dave Farber wrote:
The United States considered using force to seize oilfields in the Middle
East during an oil embargo by Arab states in 1973, according to British
government documents just made public.
...
The episode shows how the security of oil supplies is always at the
forefront of governments' planning
And eerily recalls the conclusion of "Three Days of the Condor:"
http://www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/reviews/condor.htm
TURNER
Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?
HIGGINS
We have games, that's all. We play games. "What if...?" "How many
men...?" "What would it take...?" "Is there a cheaper way to destabilize a
regime?" That's what we're paid to do.
TURNER
So Atwood just took the games too seriously. He was really going to do
it, wasn't he? Supposing I hadn't stumbled on the plan? Say nobody
had?
HIGGINS
Different ball game. The fact is, there was nothing wrong with the plan.
Oh, the plan was alright. The plan woulda worked.
...
An interesting disclosure; I think that (1) such a policy of "rolling
declassification" is, on balance, a healthy thing for a Democracy (and it's
a shame that we've retreated from a more positive attitude toward
declassification that had been advanced in the Clinton Administration,
toward policies of "resist FOIA as a matter of course," etc.; and (2) the
oil field news, coupled with the Bam tragedy, suggests a hook upon which
one could hang a signficant policy change vis-a-vis the Middle East, in
relations with Iran.
An imaginative approach to the last would be to convene a sort of "truth
and reconciliation summit," which would put as the first agenda item an
American apology for and explanation of the 1954 coup that installed the
Shah (and an explanation of "we're sorry, your self-determination was a
secondary consideration in our desire to check the Soviets, who were at
least as aggressive as we in bludgeoning others into a protective
perimeter" would be reasonable), before addressing the 1979 embassy
takeover. It's also worth noting such things as the 1988 Airbus shootdown
(http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5260/july88crash.html) and support
for Iraq in the Iran/Iraq War, on the other side of the balance from
Iranian support for militant groups as proxy combatants in Lebanon and Israel.
But that resemblance to "Three Days of the Condor" really *is* spooky...
Ross
Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc.
http://www.stapleton-gray.com
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/