[Peace-discuss] Membership, AWARE endorsement

[Karen Medina]

It is nice to hear from you Ron.

Ron Szoke said:
>two other unacknowledged components of the Iraq invasion: 
1) a psychological theory about restoring America's symbolic testicles after Vietnam & the partial victory in Gulf I, 
2) the influence of the Israel lobby -- which of course cannot be discussed without loud shrieks of "anti-Semitism" being heard.

I'll even add two others:
* W and Cheney were interested in flexing the muscles of the military industrial complex.
* W and Cheney have a deep desire to rally the people together in a hug of Nationalism with themselves at the center, and they were convinced that nothing does this better than a war.

Even with all these reasons, the fact that the administration chose to do all this in the Middle East was because of oil. They  could have invaded North Korea, Darfur, or any number of other places, but they chose Iraq and Afghanistan because ultimately they wanted control over the world's energy resources. And why does Israel have such a powerful lobby voice? It is the US's friend in the Middle East. If only Israel could control Lebanon, Iran, and all the other neighbors, the US would be happy.

-karen medina