Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

And then

Last week, the Iraqi government granted two-year, no-bid contracts for development of oil worth about $30 trillion (with a T) to BP, Shell and Exxon.

Al Qaeda's in Egypt, but we're not there. In Yemen, but we're not there. We know they're in Pakistan, but we're not there. Spare me the Al Qaeda diatribe.

WMDs? North Korea tested one - we're taking them off our list of terrorist nations.

Afghanistan gets us a Caspian pipeline that avoids Iran.

Don't get all upset, McCain's still going to win this election.

World Markets

30 trillion. Some to BP (British Petroleum) that does business worldwide. Some to Shell Phillipines, Shell Venezuela, Shell Canada, or Shell Japan? You weren't clear, just Shell. And some to Exxon Mobil of Thailand, or Exxon of New Jersey or Exxon UK? And how much of that oil will wind up in China and India? 30 trillion is not HUGE number it seems. It's reality of the world.

Once again, the mass liberal media has talking points for the layman. You are buying into them without looking for real answers. Remember you elitist, well-vetted comment? Please look to somewhere other than the New York Times for real solutions.

A.Q. loyalist are coming to Iraq from every country you named to attack our brave soldiers. Dustin Derga from here in Pickerington and 7 other US soldiers died near the Syrian border fighting A.Q. How dare you call it diatribe.

North Korea. Please. They just blew up there own reactor because of people who keep their word in this country. Kim Jong Il just succommed to the world pressure. WMD's...Irag, not there. They were...remember the gas. North Korea. Gone there too, now. 2/3rds of the axis of evil? If I were Iran, I'd realize the guy in the White House means business.

How sad. The Caspian pipeline. Look at the consortium of countries involved. Azerbaijan has 46% of its population living in poverty. This is going to help their country. Kazakhstan has 26% of its population living in poverty. Just imagine. The U.S. helping other countries? Why is that so wrong?

I'm not upset. But I'll bet if you called A.Q. ''diatribe'' to Dustin's parents Bob and Stephanie, stepmother Marla and sister Kristen, they'd question your comment. McCain or whoever, right is right and wrong is wrong. Says it right there in the Bible. The same one President Bush refers to.

By Historian

Oil is still the root of evil

I am not sure what bringing the family of a fallen soldier into this argument has to do with anything. What remains the basic facts are that the U.S. invaded Iraq to control the oil that was soon to be produced from that country. The western dollars that would have come in from that oil would have financed their nuclear weapons programs. The country was run by a dictator that hated Israel and the U.S. Clearly willing to launch a nuclear attack when he felt his time was right.

If the argument is the U.S. and its righteous stand on everything then why do we ignore the countries in Africa that are committing genocide?

The combination of the world?’s third largest oil reserves and the history from that country and its dictator of invading its neighbors made Iraq a prime target for the U.S. to attack it, just to protect our interests. Today we can see the price of oil soar when there is any talk of disruption in the supply of oil. We see it here when we fill up our gas tanks.

Clearly the world community was concerned with Saddam Hussein. Most reports at the time indicated that Iraq had some weapons of mass destruction within its borders and only this morning do we find out that the U.S. and Iraq have been shipping out 550 metric tons of yellow paste (over the last few months) (that is the base material to make uranium) from Iraq to Canada to make uranium for nuclear power plants. Clearly this news will not reach the front page of the nation?’s newspapers or the New York Times.

Iraq had a dictator that gassed his own people and sent young boys into the mine fields to clear those fields during its war with Iran. Before the Iraq war he was paying young Palestine teenagers to be suicide bombers in Israel. Clearly he placed no value on human life.

So no matter where you end up on this argument did the U.S. Soldiers remove a tyrant that was about to threaten the world with WMDs? Or did we simply invade Iraq to gain control over the oil reserves to protect the economies of the west? I think the answer is all of the above.

We can only hope that these $4 plus per gallon gas prices will inspire us all to change our habits and energy behaviors. The country?’s future must be with a true energy independence and that future with current technology must we with electrical power. I know everyone is on the band wagon for wind and solar power but they have their limits. Nuclear power is the only source of power that can operate 24/7 and produce the needed power. It also doesn?’t pollute our air.

I read a letter in the Dispatch a few weeks ago from the president of the local sierra club. She was asking the question why we are trying to restrict the nuclear power plants in Iran and at the same time we are moving again to build nuclear power plants here in the U.S. She claimed we are hypocritical in this policy. I believe you will find that democracies are much more stable and they are much less likely to attack its neighbors with these WMDs if they so desire. Unless we solve this energy problem here at home we will be over there for generations to come trying to deny these dictators our oil money.

By Oldtimer