pondering again...

the quote book is filling up...here is an update...

Why is it not possible to get some of the people in these downtrodden countries to like us instead of hating us? - Pres. D. Eisenhower upon being presented with a plan for a coup in Iran (just a thought...but maybe not supporting brutal tyrants and killing their families would be a good place to start...i mean, just an idea)

I will go to my grave not knowing that, I can't answer that. I can't explain the strategic obsession with Iraq, why it rose to the top of people's priority list. I just can't explain why so many people thought this was so important to do. - Richard Hess (head of the State Department policy planning in the lead up to the Iraq War when asked why the US started that war) (nor can any of us Mr. Hess...nor can any of us)

Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado, or lordliness. It consists in daring to do the right and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds, not in words. - M. Gandhi (in other words...Bush is no man)

Outside powers, most notably the United States, proved remarkably stingy when it came to aiding Afghanistan. They sent less aid and fewer peacekeepers per capita than they had sent to Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, or Rwanda. - S. Kinzer (and Bush and Co. wonder why the Arab community doesn't trust them for shit)

An historical irony may be that after all the search and straddle to find common purpose between the two grand initiatives [finding terrorists and stopping them] and the overthrow of Hussein - there was, finally, a connection between Iraq and the broader "war on terror." It was a catalytic relationship, like gasoline on a fire. - R. Suskind (yup, stay the course...burn baby burn)

What does it say about US policies that bin Laden would want Bush reelected? - R. Suskind (referring to the intelligence communities assessment that bin Laden's message just before the 2004 election was brilliantly planned to ensure Kerry lost)

"Energy security is national security." The consequences are not hard to imagine. American forces will spread overseas to protect oil fields, pipelines, refineries, and tanker routes more and more frequently, and they will often encounter enraged local populations. The American military can help deter attacks on vital oil facilities and ensure the continuing flow of petroleum, but it can never guarantee that our rising demand for imported oil will be satisfied. All that is certain is that we will pay for it with an increasing sacrifice of blood. - M. Klare

Realistically speaking, such a scenario is implausible, since every one of those countries, Iran included, relies on the sale of oil to keep its economy afloat; a move of this nature would be the equivalent of committing economic suicide. - M. Klare (referring to the ridiculous notion that if the US were to withdraw from the region one of the Gulf states would take advantage of the situation by impeding the flow of oil)

The sole way to become less dependent on imported petroleum is to practice energy self-restraint...the only sure way to reduce our oil imports is to reduce our consuption of oil. - M. Klare (amazing that this needs to be said)

If by 2010 we were to reduce our oil imports to the 1990 level we would save approximately $90 billion per year. - M. Klare (and that is assuming oil was at $35...and doesn't include the other $100 billion thrown away in trying to make sure cheap oil keeps flowing)

Current nuclear policy is immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. - Robert McNamara